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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are found on sale in marketplaces across North Africa.

These sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which prohibits to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists found that at least 40 great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

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

One piece of footage showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a trawler in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Remaining Habitat

The project head, explained that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – 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 growing... and it's plausible that they will become 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 find and study the predators, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their project was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a great white – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used a large amount of fish bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, collecting water samples to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for living sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been taken in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was ensnared unintentionally in gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, believes 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 scientists, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks 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 "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

The agreement mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle unintentional catch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A conservationist 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 being found in markets.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma 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 scientist. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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