🔗 Share this article

These formidable predators in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They note that several critically endangered species – including great white sharks – are being sold in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to catch them or to trade them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators discovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in 2025 alone.

Footage from social media showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been authenticated.

One video showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows parts of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The principal scientist, clarified that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been intensifying... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the near future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now designated as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their new mission to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area identified as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

An important goal of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Despite working for two weeks – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to search for shark DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any specimens.

They captured only a short sighting of one shark on their submarine cameras.

"It's disheartening," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this marine environment is."

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also learned that a young great white shark had been caught and killed in a regional fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that shark was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, estimates that more than 40 great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Sharks for Sale

The team, along with regional contacts, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An multinational pact states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

The agreement states "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for incidental capture and implementation differs from country to country.

A conservationist noted that his own research found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a chance of recovery."

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to earn a livelihood, 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 local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

"But," he stated, "we've got to act very quickly."