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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean basin are in danger of disappearing, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They note that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are being sold in ports across North Africa.

Great whites are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the coastline of North Africa, scientists discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

Videos shared online showing sharks under protection being unloaded in North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, explained that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other sea is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their new mission to locate and research the predators, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

A primary objective of their mission was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a white shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen fish parts and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also were informed that a small great white had been captured and killed in a North African fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

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

The team, however, estimates that in excess of 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 scientists, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including the region.

The protective legislation 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 states "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle incidental capture and implementation differs from one place to another.

A marine advocate noted that his own research found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to provide for their families, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

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

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

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