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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a major contributor to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They note that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across Northern African nations.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.

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

One video showed a sizeable great white shark being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what appears to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Remaining Habitat

The project head, stated that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been intensifying... and it's plausible that they will become extinct in the coming years."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their new mission to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their project was to attach a satellite tag onto a great white – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including baitfish and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "oil slick" 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 subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any animals to tag.

They captured only a brief glimpse of one blue shark on their cameras.

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

During their search for living sharks, they also received reports that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that specimen was accidentally caught in fishing gear, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, believes that more than 40 great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Sharks for Sale

The researchers, along with regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – like makos 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 released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A expert 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 appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to provide for their families, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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