🔗 Share this article

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, 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 various at-risk marine animals – like the great white shark – are appearing for sale in ports across Northern African nations.

Great whites are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which renders it unlawful to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, scientists discovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

Footage from social media showing endangered sharks being landed at North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a vessel in an Algerian port. Another, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what is believed to be a protected mako, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, stated that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other sea is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will become extinct in the near future."

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

In their most recent effort to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their mission was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a white shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

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

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using remote cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been captured and killed in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that animal was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, calculates that more than 40 great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Protected Sharks Traded

The researchers, along with regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The rules that protect sharks are multifaceted. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers 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 mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for unintentional catch and implementation differs from nation to nation.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry found several great whites 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 possibility of comeback."

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to feed their family, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a scientist. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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