Divers believe they have recorded the first ever footage of an adult\u00a0great white shark\u00a0in Mediterranean waters. They spotted the apex predator during a mission to remove\u00a0ghost nets\u00a0from a shipwreck off the coast of the Strait of Sicily.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, as a team of three, saw this huge shark,\u201d Derk Remmers, a volunteer with Ghost Diving told\u00a0BBC News.<\/p>\n
The enormous animal was close to the wreck they were diving on. \u201cPretty close to us, in fact,\u201d he recalls. And it looked like the world\u2019s most iconic shark: a great white.<\/p>\n
Remmers scrambled to catch this incredible moment on film. \u201cMy fingers were trembling while I was trying to get the camera operating,\u201d he says. \u201cBut, on the other hand, I think my biggest fear was that I couldn\u2019t get the camera running so I couldn\u2019t record this rare event.\u201d<\/p>\n
White sharks are\u00a0known to inhabit Mediterranean waters\u00a0but seeing one is incredibly rare.<\/p>\n
That makes it very hard for researchers to learn about their lives. This moment \u2013 and other findings from the mission \u2013 could provide key information for shark researchers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of our knowledge on the white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea comes from records of dead specimens caught by fishing operations,\u201d says Dr.\u00a0Carlo Cattano, researcher at the Sicily Marine Centre of the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, in a statement.<\/p>\n
As well as trying to remove discarded fishing gear from the shipwreck, the team worked with the Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites (SDSS) and shark scientists to document what they found on the site.<\/p>\n