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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a major contributor to their worrying decrease.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They note that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are appearing for sale in fish markets across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

Videos shared online showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been confirmed.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows parts of what appears to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, clarified that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been growing... and it's possible that they will become extinct in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area identified as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a white 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 mackerel and tuna scraps and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any specimens.

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

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

While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile 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 nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, estimates that over forty great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Sharks for Sale

The team, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers 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 address incidental capture and enforcement is variable from one place to another.

A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found a number of 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities 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 throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a scientist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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