Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a significant driver to their alarming decline.
This finding is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an ocean protection organization. They note that several critically endangered species – like the great white shark – are found on sale in fish markets across Northern African nations.
Great whites are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to catch them or to sell them.
However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, scientists found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there in the single year of 2025.
Footage from social media showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.
A particular clip showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.
Final Refuge
The project head, explained that many shark populations – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.
"No other sea is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been growing... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the near future."
The Mediterranean great whites is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.
In their most recent effort to track and analyze the predators, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area identified as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.
An important goal of their project was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a white shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.
To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of fish bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.
Despite working for two weeks – chumming the water, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any specimens.
They captured only a fleeting sighting of one blue shark on their submarine cameras.
"It's disappointing," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how degraded this habitat is."
While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been caught and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just not far from where they were working.
It is uncertain whether that shark was accidentally caught in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.
The team, however, estimates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.
Illegal Shark Trade
The team, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.
The protective legislation are multifaceted. Currently, 24 threatened species have global protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.
An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".
The agreement specifies "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and implementation differs from one place to another.
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 appearing in trade.
"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."
The Path Forward
In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species to the ocean.
"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch white sharks."
A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."
"But," he stated, "we've got to act very quickly."