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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a significant driver to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on research by scientists, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They report that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which renders it unlawful to fish for them or to trade them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been authenticated.

One video showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a trawler in an Algerian port. Additional footage, taken in a Tunisian location, shows parts of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, stated that many shark species – great whites especially – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been growing... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the near future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their new mission to track and analyze the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

One key aim of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

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

After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been taken in a North African fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

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

The team, however, calculates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "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. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The regulations safeguarding sharks 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 returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for accidental bycatch and implementation differs from country to country.

A marine advocate noted that his own research 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a chance of recovery."

What Can Be Done?

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to feed their family, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch protected species."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."

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