During a mission in Strait of Sicily, between the Italian coast and Tunisia, a group of technical divers found themselves swimming a few meters from a great white shark. The sighting occurred near a submerged wreckwhere the organizations’ divers Ghost Diving And Healthy Seas Foundation they were working to remove abandoned fishing nets. The predator appeared out of the blue suddenly. It walked around the old ship showing its snout and fin and then walked away calmly, without showing any aggression towards the man. The video of the meeting, shot by the divers’ cameras, documents a rare but far from random event in these waters.
Because the shark was spotted exactly at that point
The divers weren’t looking for sharks, they were cleaning the sea from ghost nets. Yet the location of the meeting perfectly explains the reason for the sighting. The old ships sunk in the Mediterranean change their skin over time: iron is colonized by algae and microorganisms, small fish find refuge in sheet metal. And, as a result, bigger hunters arrive. Including, in fact, sharks.
The fact is that these artificial oases also attract fishing boats. The nets become entangled on the structures of the wrecks and are abandoned, becoming invisible traps that continue to kill fish, turtles and even the sharks themselves.
The “home” of sharks between Italy and Tunisia
For scientists, this face-to-face encounter is no surprise. The Channel of Sicily has always been a kind of nursery for white sharksone of the few areas of the Mediterranean where this protected species still manages to reproduce, despite the overall population has fallen by 50% in recent decades due to bycatch.
The images shot by the team free the animal from its old reputation as a ruthless killer. The shark studied the situation, realized that the divers were not food and continued on his way. A video that demonstrates how the real danger for the sea is not its largest inhabitants, but what humans leave at the bottom.
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