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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This conclusion is based on studies conducted by experts, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They report that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are being sold in fish markets across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to target them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

Social media clips showing protected sharks being landed at North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being pulled from a boat from a vessel in an Algerian port. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, explained that many shark populations – 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 consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their new mission to track and analyze the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area known as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

A primary objective of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including baitfish and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a small great white had been caught and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

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

The team, however, estimates that over forty great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Sharks for Sale

The scientists, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The rules that protect sharks are complicated. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – like makos and hammerheads.

An international agreement states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

The agreement states "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and implementation differs from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own research found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they discard their catch into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a scientist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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