Divers Removing Ghost Nets Capture First Underwater Footage of Great White Shark in the Mediterranean
The encounter took place during a high-seas mission to remove ghost nets trapping marine life on an offshore shipwreck between Sicily and Tunisia.
PRESS RELEASE – 8 JUNE 2026 – WORLD OCEANS DAY
During a high-seas ghost-net removal mission organized by the Healthy Seas Foundation together with project partners Ghost Diving and SDSS (The Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites), divers documented what is believed to be the first underwater footage captured of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea in his natural habitat. While rare surface sightings have occasionally occurred in the region, underwater encounters filmed by divers have never before been documented.
The encounter occurred while the team was working to recover abandoned fishing nets from a shipwreck located offshore in the Strait of Sicily, a key biodiversity hotspot that is also one of the most heavily exploited fishing areas in the Mediterranean, where ghost nets continue to trap and kill turtles, large fish and other species.
The footage and photographs of the white shark were captured underwater by Ghost Diving volunteer Derk Remmers.
Healthy Seas organized the mission, continuing its broader work on ghost-net removal and biodiversity monitoring on Mediterranean shipwrecks. The project was carried out together with Ghost Diving and SDSS (The Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites) combining marine conservation, technical diving, scientific collaboration and underwater documentation. The mission also built on ongoing collaborations with external researchers already monitoring threatened shark populations in the area, including scientists Dr. Marco Milazzo of Università degli Studi di Palermo and Dr. Carlo Cattano of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn of Palermo.
Volunteer technical divers from Ghost Diving carried out the underwater recovery operations, while Healthy Seas coordinated the mission and its scientific activities in collaboration with SDSS, which contributed historical shipwreck expertise and underwater documentation throughout the project.
While the shark encounter itself was extraordinary, the mission was focused on a more urgent problem: the removal of ghost nets entangled on the wreck and surrounding seabed. Previous dives at the site documented marine animals trapped in abandoned fishing gear, including several endangered loggerhead sea turtles and large fish species. The team recovered sections of net that continued to pose risks to wildlife inhabiting the wreck ecosystem.
“What makes this encounter so powerful is not only the shark itself, but the context in which it happened. We were there to remove ghost nets trapping marine life on a shipwreck ecosystem that is a hotspot for biodivesity. Moments like this remind us how much life can still exist in offshore Mediterranean waters and how important it is to protect it from preventable threats like abandoned fishing gear or overfishing,” said Veronika Mikos, Director of Healthy Seas.
Marine experts collaborating with the mission described the sighting as highly unusual and scientifically valuable, while stressing that further analysis and monitoring will be needed before broader ecological conclusions can be drawn.
“Most of our knowledge on the White Sharks in the Mediterranean Sea comes from records of dead specimens caught by fishing operations. Observations like this are extremely valuable for improving our understanding of the distribution, habits, and behaviour of this critically endangered species, whose survival is threatened by human activities. Our research on sharks has, over time, allowed us to identify several key hotspots for threatened species, and this sighting is particularly significant in validating the conservation value of this area” said Dr. Carlo Cattano, researcher at the Sicily Marine Centre of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn.
Shipwrecks in offshore waters can function as artificial reefs, attracting a rich variety of marine species. However, when ghost nets settle on these structures, they can transform them into underwater traps, entangling and killing the same marine life they attract.
“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. 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,” said Derk Remmers of Ghost Diving.
Alongside the clean-up operation, the mission also included environmental DNA (eDNA) sampling and underwater monitoring activities aimed at improving understanding of the species present in the area. Additional analysis will continue in the coming months.
Most of the visual and scientific material collected during the mission, including footage of the net recovery, marine life around the wreck and the shark encounter will be released progressively in the coming weeks.
The project was organized by Healthy Seas and supported by Healthy Seas’ partner DWS.
About Healthy Seas
Healthy Seas is a foundation dedicated to removing ghost fishing gear and marine litter to protect marine ecosystems and promote circular solutions. Through partnerships with volunteer divers, fishermen, scientists and local communities, Healthy Seas combines clean-up, prevention, education and scientific collaboration, including biodiversity monitoring on shipwrecks and abandoned fish farms. Since 2013, the organization has recovered more than 1,309 tons of marine litter worldwide.
About Ghost Diving
Ghost Diving is an international organization of volunteer technical divers dedicated to removing ghost fishing gear and marine debris from underwater environments. Operating through a global network of trained divers, Ghost Diving carries out complex underwater recovery missions while documenting the environmental impacts of abandoned fishing gear on marine ecosystems and underwater habitats.
About SDSS
SDSS (The Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites) has conducted multidisciplinary research on historic Mediterranean shipwrecks for more than twenty years, including underwater archaeological documentation, marine biodiversity observation and monitoring of environmental impacts around submerged sites.
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Media Contact: Samara Croci, Communications Manager, Healthy Seas Foundation – samara.croci[AT]healthyseas.org
