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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are appearing for sale in ports across North Africa.

Great whites are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team found that at least 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in 2025 alone.

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

One video showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a vessel in an Algerian port. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The principal scientist, explained that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will become extinct in the near future."

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

In their most recent effort to track and analyze the predators, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their project was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any specimens.

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

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

While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark had been caught and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that animal was ensnared unintentionally in fishing gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, believes 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 team, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The protective legislation are complicated. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

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

The agreement states "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address unintentional catch and enforcement is variable from one place to another.

A expert noted that his own investigation 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a chance of recovery."

The Path Forward

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they discard their catch into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a scientist. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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