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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of disappearing, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on studies conducted by experts, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They report that some of the most threatened species – including great white sharks – are being sold in marketplaces across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to target them or to offer them for sale.

However, by observing harbors along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, the research team discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing protected sharks being brought dead into 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. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows parts of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, clarified that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had plummeted 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 possible 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 International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their new mission to find and study the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their expedition 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 over three tons of fish bait – including baitfish and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, collecting water samples to look for genetic material and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

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

It is unknown whether that shark was accidentally caught in gear, or if it was hunted.

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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, 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 states "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle incidental capture and compliance varies from nation to nation.

A expert noted that his own inquiry found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

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

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to earn a livelihood, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you provide alternatives and education in more responsible fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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