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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a significant driver to their worrying decrease.

This conclusion is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They note that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are being sold in marketplaces across Northern African nations.

Great white sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to target them or to sell them.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists discovered 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 landed at North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows parts of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, stated that many populations of sharks – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other sea is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will go extinct in the foreseeable future."

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

In their new mission to locate and research the sharks, 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 mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

"It's disappointing," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this marine environment is."

As the team searched for living sharks, they also learned that a juvenile great white had been taken in a North African fishery – just not far from where they were working.

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

The team, however, estimates 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.

Illegal Shark Trade

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

The rules that protect sharks are multifaceted. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An regional treaty 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 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 unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," 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 earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species 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 provide alternatives and education in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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