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

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an ocean protection organization. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – including great white sharks – are being sold in ports across North Africa.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by surveying docks along the coastline of North Africa, investigators found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

Footage from social media showing sharks under protection being unloaded in North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a sizeable great white shark being pulled from a boat from a trawler in an Algerian port. A separate video, 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.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, stated that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other stretch of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's likely that they will go extinct in the foreseeable future."

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

In their new mission to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

An important goal of their expedition was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used over three tons of fish bait – including baitfish and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to search for shark 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 underwater cameras.

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

During their search for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that shark was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, calculates that more than 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 researchers, along with regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including the region.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – like makos and hammerheads.

An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

The agreement mandates "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and compliance varies from one place to another.

A expert noted that his own investigation found multiple white 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 life remaining," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to feed their family, or release a protected animal 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 assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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