🔗 Share this article

These formidable predators in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They report that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are being sold in ports across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which makes it illegal to target them or to sell them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the coastline of North Africa, the research team uncovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing endangered sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been confirmed.

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being hauled ashore from a vessel in Algeria. Another, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Remaining Habitat

The principal scientist, explained that many shark species – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been intensifying... and it's likely that they will go extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now listed as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

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

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Despite working for two weeks – chumming the water, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

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

It is unknown whether that animal was caught by accident in gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, believes 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.

Sharks for Sale

The scientists, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Evidence shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including several North African nations.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, numerous 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 mandates "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle unintentional catch and compliance varies from country to country.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry 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 animals still there," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a hope for revival."

The Path Forward

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

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

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."

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