🔗 Share this article

These formidable predators in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of disappearing, with poaching 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 report that various at-risk marine animals – like the great white shark – are found on sale in marketplaces across North Africa.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which prohibits to target them or to sell them.

However, by surveying docks along the coastline of North Africa, scientists uncovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

Social media clips showing protected sharks being landed at North African ports has been independently verified.

A particular clip showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a trawler in an Algerian port. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows parts of what is believed to be a protected mako, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, stated that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been intensifying... and it's plausible that they will become extinct in the near future."

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

In their new mission to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area identified as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

A primary objective of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used a large amount of chum – including baitfish and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any specimens.

They captured only a brief glimpse of one blue shark species on their underwater cameras.

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark 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 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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The team, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, numerous 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 unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address unintentional catch and compliance varies from country to country.

A expert noted that his own inquiry found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign 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 safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas 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 release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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