Overview
- In May 2026 a volunteer diver working between Tunisia and Sicily filmed a great white shark while teams removed abandoned fishing gear from a wreck.
- Healthy Seas, Ghost Diving and the Society for the Documentation of Submerged Sites released the video around World Oceans Day and said it appears to be the first underwater recording of an adult Mediterranean great white, although formal scientific confirmation has not yet been published.
- Mission participants say the shark was likely attracted by dead turtles and large fish trapped in a large ghost net on the wreck, highlighting how abandoned gear kills wildlife and draws scavengers.
- Researchers, including Carlo Cattano of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, called the sighting scientifically valuable because most knowledge of Mediterranean great whites comes from dead specimens recovered in fisheries.
- NGOs are using the footage to push for stepped-up ghost-net removals and marine protected areas, and experts expect image analysis and follow-up study to clarify the sighting's significance for conservation.