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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a major contributor to their alarming decline.

This conclusion 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 appearing for sale in ports across Northern African nations.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which prohibits to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

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

A particular clip showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in Algeria. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, stated that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been intensifying... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the near future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now designated as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their latest attempt to find and study the predators, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area identified as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of fish bait – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks 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 habitat is."

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just not far 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 over forty great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Sharks for Sale

The researchers, along with regional contacts, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have treaty-based safeguards – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

The agreement specifies "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle unintentional catch and compliance varies from country to country.

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

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

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

"Why would they discard their catch into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more selective fishing, they will not catch protected species."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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