🔗 Share this article

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This assessment is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They report that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across North Africa.

These sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by surveying docks along the coastline of North Africa, investigators found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been authenticated.

One video showed a big shark being dragged onto land from a vessel in an Algerian port. A separate video, recorded in Tunisia, shows parts of what appears to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The project head, stated that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other stretch of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the foreseeable future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now listed as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their latest attempt to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

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

To try this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including baitfish and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

They captured only a fleeting sighting of one blue shark species on their underwater cameras.

"It's disappointing," 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 young great white shark had been caught and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that shark was accidentally caught in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

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

Illegal Shark Trade

The researchers, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, numerous species have international legal 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 returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle incidental capture and compliance varies from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own investigation found a number of 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 animals still there," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a chance of recovery."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch protected species."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."

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