A certain apex predator got camera-ready just in the nick of time.

Through incredible timing and luck, divers obtained the first underwater footage of an adult great white shark in its natural habitat on May 13.

According to a June 8 news release from the Healthy Seas foundation, the encounter took place during a “high-seas mission” to remove abandoned fishing nets and equipment from an offshore shipwreck between Sicily and Tunisia, which the organization said is one of the most heavily exploited fishing areas in the Mediterranean.

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Shark researcher Gregory Skomal, right, with the state of Massachusetts, uses a camera to get underwater footage of a white shark during a research mission off Monomoy in 2023. At left is Brian Hanson, volunteer research assistant and member of the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy board of directors.

(Merrily Cassidy/Cape Cod Times / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Though rare surface sightings have occurred in the area, underwater encounters, such as this, have “never before been documented.”

Volunteer diver Derk Remmers captured the “extraordinary” sight on video, telling the BBC that he almost didn’t get the shot because his “fingers were trembling.”

Video shows ‘extraordinary’ first moment with great white

In a statement, Remmers said, “Statistically, it is way more likely to win the lotto jackpot than to meet such an iconic animal underwater. You spend decades diving wrecks and removing ghost nets, but nothing prepares you for a moment like this.”

“An offshore underwater shark encounter in the Mediterranean is insane, yet we also went on with our diving plan to remove nets from the wreck, as this moment showed the importance of our work very clearly,” he added.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the great white shark is considered a “critically endangered” species in the Mediterranean.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Watch first sighting of great white shark in Mediterranean Sea