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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are being sold in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which renders it unlawful to catch them or to trade them.

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

Footage from social media showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been confirmed.

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a vessel in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what is believed to be a protected mako, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, explained that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other stretch of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been growing... and it's likely that they will vanish in the near future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now designated as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

One key aim of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also learned that a young great white shark had been taken in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that animal was accidentally caught 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.

Illegal Shark Trade

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including several North African nations.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, numerous species have treaty-based safeguards – 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 specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and compliance varies from nation to nation.

A marine advocate 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 life remaining," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

The Path Forward

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to provide for their families, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back 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."

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

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