The remarkable encounter took place in May several kilometres off the coast between Tunisia and Sicily.
Diver Derk Remmers was taking part in a mission to remove abandoned fishing gear from the seabed when the shark suddenly appeared nearby.
Remmers was working alongside the organisations Ghost Diving, Healthy Seas Foundation and the Society for the Documentation of Submerged Sites (SDSS), which remove so-called “ghost nets” that threaten marine life including turtles, dolphins and sharks.
“The shark was very close to us,” Remmers told the BBC.
“My fingers were shaking when I tried to switch on the camera.”
According to the conservation groups involved, while occasional surface sightings of great white sharks have been reported in the Mediterranean, no diver had previously documented an underwater encounter with an adult specimen in the region.
Experts believe the shark, likely a male, may have been attracted by dead sea turtles and large fish trapped in a fishing net attached to a wreck in one of the Mediterranean’s most heavily exploited fishing areas.