🔗 Share this article

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of disappearing, with illegal fishing being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on studies conducted by experts, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They report that several critically endangered species – including great white sharks – are being sold in ports across North Africa.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to target them or to offer them for sale.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators found that at least 40 great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

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

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being hauled ashore from a trawler in Algeria. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows parts of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The principal scientist, stated that many populations of sharks – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been growing... and it's possible that they will vanish in the near future."

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

In their latest attempt to track and analyze the animals, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

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 do this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including baitfish 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 – chumming the water, taking samples of seawater to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also learned that a small great white had been caught and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just not far from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that specimen was ensnared unintentionally in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, estimates 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 team, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An multinational pact 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 unintentional catch and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A expert noted that his own investigation found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"It shows that there is life remaining," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to earn a livelihood, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a scientist. "If you support them and train them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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