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One of the world's most feared predators, captured on what's believed to be the first underwater footage of a great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea. Volunteer divers filming near Sicily spotted the shark while removing abandoned fishing nets from a shipwreck. The sharks do live in these waters, but it's rare for humans to see them this far below the surface. An encounter like this one, they say, is akin to winning the lottery. But thousands of kilometers away off South Africa's coast, the picture is very different. Once famous for great white shark encounters, only a handful of sightings are recorded each year in
places like Gansbaai. According to a report by the South African National Biodiversity Institute, 82 of the 191 shark species found in the country's waters are at risk of extinction. And six of the 13 shark species native to South Africa are also at risk of disappearing. Scientists say a combination of factors, including attacks by killer whales, overfishing, getting caught up in commercial nets, and environmental pressure on their prey, are likely driving the decline. So, all of that is at play, working together, and it creates sort of like a perfect ecological storm um that is causing our white sharks to disappear. So, we barely ever see white sharks around our boats anymore, maybe one a year if you're lucky.
Okay. For conservationists, the Mediterranean sighting is a reminder of how extraordinary these animals are, and how fragile their future may be. Kara Legg, Al
