Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a key factor to their alarming decline.
This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They report that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across Northern African nations.
Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to target them or to trade them.
However, by monitoring fishing ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, the research team uncovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.
Footage from social media showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been independently verified.
One video showed a big shark being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows parts of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a species at risk.
Final Refuge
The lead researcher, explained that many shark populations – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.
"No other body of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been growing... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the coming years."
The Mediterranean white shark population is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.
In their most recent effort to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.
An important goal of their expedition was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.
To try this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of fish bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.
After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any specimens.
They captured only a short sighting of one blue shark species on their submarine cameras.
"It's disheartening," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this marine environment is."
While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also learned that a small great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just not far from where they were working.
It is uncertain whether that animal was ensnared unintentionally in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.
The team, however, estimates 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 team, along with regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.
The protective legislation are complicated. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – like makos 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 unintentional catch and implementation differs from nation to nation.
A conservationist noted that his own research found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.
"It shows that there is life remaining," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a hope for revival."
The Path Forward
In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to earn a livelihood, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.
"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."
An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."
"But," he continued, "we've got to act very quickly."
