🔗 Share this article

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a major contributor to their rapid population drop.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They indicate that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are being sold in marketplaces across Northern African nations.

Great whites are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to catch them or to trade them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team uncovered that at least 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

Videos shared online showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. Additional footage, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, explained that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been growing... and it's possible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area identified as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

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 try this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

During their search for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a juvenile 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 shark was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, estimates that more than 40 great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Protected Sharks Traded

The team, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have global protection – like makos 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 alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for incidental capture and implementation differs from country to country.

A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found multiple white sharks 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a chance of recovery."

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a scientist. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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