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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They note that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are found on sale in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team discovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

Footage from social media showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Remaining Habitat

The project head, stated that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other sea is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been growing... and it's possible that they will become extinct in the near future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now classified as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their latest attempt to track and analyze the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area known as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their expedition 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 over three tons of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Despite working for two weeks – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any animals to tag.

They captured only a fleeting sighting of one blue shark on their underwater cameras.

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

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

It is not clear whether that shark was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, believes 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 team, along with regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including the region.

The protective legislation are complicated. Currently, 24 threatened species have treaty-based safeguards – like makos and hammerheads.

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

The agreement states "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and implementation differs from nation to nation.

A conservationist noted that his own research found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to feed their family, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide them in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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