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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This conclusion is based on studies conducted by experts, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They note that several critically endangered species – including great white sharks – are found on sale in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, scientists found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

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

One video showed a big shark being dragged onto land from a trawler in an Algerian port. A separate video, recorded in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, clarified that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other stretch of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

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

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

A primary objective of their mission was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

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

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using remote cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

During their search for living sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been taken in a North African fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that animal was caught by accident in fishing gear, 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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that protected 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 international legal protection – like makos and hammerheads.

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

The agreement mandates "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for accidental bycatch and compliance varies from country to country.

A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"It shows that there is life remaining," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a chance of recovery."

The Path Forward

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to feed their family, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

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

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

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