Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a significant driver to their alarming decline.
This conclusion is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an ocean protection organization. They note that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are appearing for sale in ports across the North African coast.
Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to fish for them or to trade 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 2025 alone.
Social media clips showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been authenticated.
One video showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a trawler in an Algerian port. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a species at risk.
Final Refuge
The project head, stated that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the past years.
"No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's likely that they will go extinct in the near future."
The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now classified as Critically Endangered by the key international body.
In their most recent effort to locate and research the predators, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area identified as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.
One key aim of their project was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.
To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including baitfish and hundreds of liters of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.
Despite working for two weeks – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to search for shark DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.
They captured only a short sighting of one blue shark on their submarine cameras.
"It's disappointing," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how degraded this marine environment is."
As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a small great white had been caught and killed in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.
It is not clear whether that specimen was accidentally caught in fishing gear, or if it was deliberately caught.
The team, however, estimates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.
Illegal Shark Trade
The team, along with local partners, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Findings shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.
The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, numerous 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 mandates "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle unintentional catch and enforcement is variable from one place to another.
A expert noted that his own research found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.
"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a chance of recovery."
Possible Solutions
In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species to the ocean.
"Why would they discard their catch into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a local expert. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."
An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."
"But," he added, "we've got to act very quickly."
