The Great White Face Disappearing in the Mediterranean Sea, Scientists State

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – including great white sharks – are being sold in ports across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to target them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, scientists uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a vessel in an Algerian port. Additional footage, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, stated that many shark species – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

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

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

In their most recent effort to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

One key aim of their mission was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and a substantial volume of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag.

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

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

During their search for living sharks, they also were informed that a young great white shark had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just not far from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that specimen was ensnared unintentionally in gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, calculates that more than 40 great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Protected Sharks Traded

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

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, 24 threatened species have global protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

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

The agreement specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle unintentional catch and implementation differs 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 seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

"It shows that there is life remaining," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

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

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a scientist. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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