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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This assessment is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across Northern African nations.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which makes it illegal to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, the research team discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there in the single year of 2025.

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

One piece of footage showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, explained that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been growing... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the predators, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

One key aim of their expedition was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including frozen fish parts and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, taking samples of seawater to search for shark DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any specimens.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a juvenile great white had been caught and killed in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that animal was ensnared unintentionally in fishing gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, estimates that more than 40 great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "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. Findings shows that protected sharks are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

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

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

The agreement specifies "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address unintentional catch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A expert noted that his own investigation found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"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 economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice 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 must feed their households?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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