first underwater – A volunteer diver recorded rare underwater video of an adult great white shark on May 13 during a high-seas cleanup mission between Sicily and Tunisia—described by the Healthy Seas foundation as an unprecedented underwater encounter in the Mediterranean.
When Derk Remmers finally got the shot, he said his hands were shaking too much to be sure it would happen.
The volunteer diver captured what is believed to be the first underwater video of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean on May 13. in footage released later by the Healthy Seas foundation in a June 8 news release. The encounter occurred during a “high-seas mission” focused on removing abandoned fishing nets and equipment from an offshore shipwreck between Sicily and Tunisia.
Healthy Seas described the wreck site as one of the most heavily exploited fishing areas in the Mediterranean. While rare surface sightings of great white sharks have been reported in the region, the foundation said underwater encounters like this have “never before been documented.”
Remmers recorded the “extraordinary” moment on video. In remarks to the BBC. he said he almost didn’t get the shot because his “fingers were trembling.” In a statement. he put the rarity into plain terms: “Statistically. it is way more likely to win the lotto jackpot than to meet such an iconic animal underwater. You spend decades diving wrecks and removing ghost nets, but nothing prepares you for a moment like this.”.
He also tied the encounter back to the cleanup mission. “An offshore underwater shark encounter in the Mediterranean is insane, yet we also went on with our diving plan to remove nets from the wreck, as this moment showed the importance of our work very clearly,” Remmers said.
That work matters because the great white shark is already under pressure. The International Union for Conservation of Nature considers the species “critically endangered” in the Mediterranean.
The sequence of events is stark: a cleanup crew goes to a wreck site to remove ghost gear, and what they find isn’t just debris—it’s a glimpse of a top predator in a region where underwater documentation has been missing until now.
great white shark Mediterranean Sea divers Derk Remmers Healthy Seas foundation ghost nets Sicily Tunisia shipwreck critically endangered