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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a major contributor to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an international conservation charity. They report that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are found on sale in fish markets across North Africa.

These sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to target them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, the research team discovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in 2025 alone.

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

One video showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a trawler in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows parts of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, stated that many populations of sharks – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been growing... and it's likely that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

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

In their new mission to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

An important goal of their expedition was to deploy a tracking device onto a great white – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, collecting water samples to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been taken in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, estimates that in excess of 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 researchers, along with regional contacts, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Evidence shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

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

The agreement states "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a possibility of comeback."

What Can Be Done?

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to feed their family, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

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

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

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