Overview
- Volunteer divers removing abandoned fishing nets from a shipwreck in the Strait of Sicily encountered and filmed a large great white shark while working on a ghost‑net clean‑up operation in May.
- The team released the footage in early June, and the video is being treated as possibly the first underwater recording of an adult great white in Mediterranean waters.
- Researchers caution the sighting is scientifically valuable but does not indicate population recovery for a group the IUCN classifies as critically endangered in the Mediterranean.
- Divers and conservation groups say the encounter highlights the threat from lost fishing gear that traps sea turtles and other species and point to overfishing and bycatch as primary drivers of decline.
- NGOs involved in the dive say the footage should spur governments to scale up systematic ghost‑net removal, strengthen fisheries regulation, and expand protected areas in hotspots such as the Strait of Sicily.