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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a major contributor to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They report that some of the most threatened species – including great white sharks – are found on sale in marketplaces across North Africa.

These sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which makes it illegal to target them or to trade them.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

Footage from social media showing endangered sharks being landed at North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a big shark being dragged onto land from a vessel in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a protected mako, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, explained that many shark populations – great whites especially – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been intensifying... and it's likely that they will become extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now listed as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their new mission to track and analyze the predators, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Despite working for two weeks – laying bait, 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 blue shark species on their cameras.

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

While the team was searching for living sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that specimen was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, calculates 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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The scientists, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including the region.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – like makos 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 released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for unintentional catch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own research 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 preserve this, there is a hope for revival."

The Path Forward

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, 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 regional marine biologist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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