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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This conclusion is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an ocean protection organization. They note that various at-risk marine animals – 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 safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to target them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

Footage from social media 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, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The project head, clarified that many shark populations – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other sea is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been growing... and it's possible that they will vanish in the near future."

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

In their new mission to track and analyze the predators, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area considered a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their expedition was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including baitfish and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any specimens.

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

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

As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that specimen was ensnared unintentionally in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, estimates that over forty 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 local partners, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have global protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

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

The agreement mandates "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and enforcement is variable from one place to another.

A expert noted that his own investigation 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 life remaining," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a chance of recovery."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to feed their family, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a local expert. "If you support them and train them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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