🔗 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 alarming decline.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They report that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are being sold in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to target them or to trade them.

However, by observing harbors along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

Social media clips showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been authenticated.

One video showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a protected mako, which is also a species at risk.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, clarified that many populations of sharks – particularly great whites – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the last few 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 likely that they will vanish in the near future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

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

A primary objective of their expedition was to attach a satellite tag onto a great white – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of bait – including baitfish and a substantial volume of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any specimens.

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also learned that a small great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was accidentally caught in gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, calculates 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.

Sharks for Sale

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that endangered sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The protective legislation are multifaceted. Currently, 24 threatened species have global protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

An international agreement states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

The agreement specifies "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and compliance varies from country to country.

A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining 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 possibility of comeback."

What Can Be Done?

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you support them and train them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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