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

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They note that some of the most threatened species – including great white sharks – are being sold in marketplaces across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to catch them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, the research team uncovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing protected sharks being landed at North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being pulled from a boat from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what appears to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, clarified that many shark populations – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

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

The Mediterranean white shark population is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

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

One key aim of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of tuna oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

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

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also learned that a small great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just a short distance from where they were working.

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

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

Sharks for Sale

The researchers, along with regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The protective legislation are multifaceted. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An international agreement states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

The agreement specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address unintentional catch and implementation differs from nation to nation.

A conservationist noted that his own investigation found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, 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 selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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