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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This conclusion is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are found on sale in fish markets across North Africa.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which prohibits to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the coastline of North Africa, investigators found that at least 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

Videos shared online showing endangered sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what is believed to be a protected mako, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The principal scientist, clarified that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other stretch of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been growing... and it's plausible that they will become extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their latest attempt to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area known as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their project was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any animals to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also learned that a young great white shark had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – 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 hunted.

The team, however, calculates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Illegal Shark Trade

The researchers, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – such as makos, angel sharks, 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 specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for accidental bycatch and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a chance of recovery."

The Path Forward

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to feed their family, 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 local expert. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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