Overview
- Divers from Healthy Seas, Ghost Diving and SDSS recorded an adult white shark about 40 metres deep in the Strait of Sicily while removing an abandoned fishing net during a June 8 dive.
- The team collected environmental DNA and other underwater samples from the site and scientists say laboratory analyses of those materials will continue in the coming months.
- Researchers call the footage rare and valuable because most Mediterranean knowledge of white sharks has come from bycatch or dead specimens, and the IUCN lists the regional population as highly endangered.
- Public satellite data from OCEARCH show active, tagged white sharks along the US Atlantic coast now, highlighting a gap in recent European tagging records and the need for more local tracking.
- Conservationists say the sighting underscores threats such as ghost nets, overfishing and warming seas and could prompt expanded eDNA surveys, tagging efforts and targeted protection for the Strait of Sicily.