Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their alarming decline.
This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They report that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across Northern African nations.
Great white sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which makes it illegal to target them or to trade them.
However, by monitoring fishing ports along the coastline of North Africa, investigators uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.
Footage from social media showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.
One video showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a vessel in an Algerian port. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.
Last Shark Stronghold
The lead researcher, clarified that many shark species – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent decades.
"No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been intensifying... and it's likely that they will go extinct in the coming years."
The Mediterranean great whites is now classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
In their new mission to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.
One key aim of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.
To try this, the researchers used over three tons of fish bait – including baitfish and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.
After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.
They captured only a short sighting of one blue shark on their underwater cameras.
"It's discouraging," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this ecosystem is."
As the team searched for living sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been caught and killed in a North African fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.
It is unknown whether that specimen was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.
The team, however, calculates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.
Illegal Shark Trade
The researchers, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that endangered sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.
The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – like makos and hammerheads.
An multinational pact states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".
The agreement specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for incidental capture and compliance varies from nation to nation.
A conservationist noted that his own research found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.
"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a possibility of comeback."
Possible Solutions
In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.
"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a scientist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."
Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."
"But," he added, "we've got to act very quickly."
