🔗 Share this article

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

This assessment is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are appearing for sale in fish markets across Northern African nations.

These sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to catch them or to trade them.

However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, investigators uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.

Social media clips showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

One video showed a big shark being dragged onto land from a trawler in an Algerian port. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, stated that many populations of sharks – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's likely that they will become extinct in the coming years."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now designated as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area identified as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their mission was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including baitfish and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Despite working for two weeks – laying bait, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

"It's disappointing," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how depleted this habitat is."

During their search for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just not far from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that animal was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, calculates 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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Evidence shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have treaty-based safeguards – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

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

The agreement mandates "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and compliance varies from country to country.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

"It shows that there is life remaining," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to feed their family, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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