First Underwater Video of Adult Great White Shark Recorded in Mediterranean off Sicily

Volunteer diver Derk Remmers filmed an adult great white shark underwater in the Strait of Sicily last week, producing the first such video recorded in the Mediterranean Sea. The footage and photographs were published on Monday. Remmers participated in a mission organized by the Healthy Seas Foundation to remove abandoned fishing nets and equipment from a shipwreck described as a biodiversity hotspot.

The shark was accompanied by a dozen striped pilot fish. "The shark was pretty close to us ... and in fact my fingers were trembling when I was trying to get the camera operating," Remmers told CBS News' partner network BBC.

Pascal van Erp, another member of the diving team, said on Facebook that the shark had probably been drawn to dead marine life entangled in the abandoned fishing net, including lots of sea turtles. Healthy Seas had documented animals, including sea turtles, trapped in abandoned fishing gear at the site on previous dives.

"Statistically, it is way more likely to win the lotto jackpot than to meet such an iconic animal underwater," Remmers said in a statement.

Veronika Mikos, director of Healthy Seas, said the encounter showed 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. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has classified the great white shark as critically endangered in the Mediterranean Sea since 2016.