🔗 Share this article

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a major contributor to their rapid population drop.

This assessment is based on research by scientists, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are found on 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 target them or to trade them.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators uncovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been killed there in the single year of 2025.

Videos shared online showing endangered sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, explained that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been growing... and it's possible that they will go extinct in the coming years."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now listed as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their new mission to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

A primary objective of their expedition was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including baitfish and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for living sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark had been taken in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that specimen was ensnared unintentionally in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

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

Illegal Shark Trade

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have treaty-based safeguards – 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 enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A expert noted that his own investigation found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining 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 safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

What Can Be Done?

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to provide for their families, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."

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