A volunteer diver filmed an incredibly rare great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea in May, capturing an encounter that stood out even to the people in the water with it. Derk Remmers said the moment felt “pretty special,” but also brief, as the shark came close enough to leave his fingers trembling while he tried to get the camera working.

The footage has drawn attention now because great white shark sightings in the Mediterranean are so unusual. Remmers and other divers were working with the NGO Healthy Seas when they filmed the animal, as part of a dive aimed at highlighting the problem of ghost fishing nets. That makes the clip more than a lucky encounter: it was captured during conservation work, not a search for sharks.

The shark was spotted many miles offshore between Tunisia and Sicily, which is one reason scientists say people should not be concerned. The animal is believed to have been an adult male, and although the species is thought to be near extinction in the Mediterranean, experts say this sighting does not point to a broader danger to swimmers or boats. The rarity of the footage is tied to how little remains of the population there, not to a sudden surge in sharks.

That scarcity is what gives the video its weight. Overfishing is thought to have pushed the species toward near extinction in the Mediterranean, and conservationists hope the sighting may help persuade governments to create marine protected areas in the region’s waters. The footage does not prove that such protections will follow, but it does give campaigners a striking image to carry into those conversations.

For Remmers, the memory was immediate: the shark was close, the camera was difficult to handle, and the moment was gone almost as soon as it appeared. For conservationists, the bigger question is whether a rare shark on film can help turn years of warnings into action at sea.