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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are on the verge of vanishing, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They report that several critically endangered species – including great white sharks – are found on sale in fish markets across North Africa.

Great white sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

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

Social media clips showing endangered sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been authenticated.

A particular clip showed a sizeable great white shark being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a species at risk.

Final Refuge

The project head, explained that many shark populations – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other body of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their latest attempt to track and analyze the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a great white – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to search for shark DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

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

It is uncertain whether that animal was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, estimates 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 scientists, along with regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Evidence shows that endangered sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, numerous species have treaty-based safeguards – 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 specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle accidental bycatch and compliance varies from nation to nation.

A expert noted that his own investigation found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope 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 preserve this, there is a hope for revival."

The Path Forward

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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