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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with unlawful fishing practices being a major contributor to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are found on sale in fish markets across North Africa.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to fish for them or to trade them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, scientists uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

Videos shared online showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been authenticated.

A particular clip showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a vessel in Algeria. Additional footage, taken in a Tunisian location, shows parts of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The project head, stated that many populations of sharks – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other stretch of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will go extinct in the near future."

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

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

An important goal of their expedition was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including baitfish and hundreds of liters of scent 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 look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for living sharks, they also were informed that a young great white shark had been caught and killed in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that animal was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, believes 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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

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

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

The agreement specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for incidental capture and compliance varies from country to country.

A expert 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 life remaining," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to feed their family, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide 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 stated, "we've got to act very quickly."