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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an ocean protection organization. They report that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are found on sale in marketplaces across North Africa.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to fish for them or to trade them.

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

Videos shared online showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a big shark being dragged onto land from a vessel in Algeria. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a species at risk.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, explained that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other stretch of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will become extinct in the coming years."

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

In their latest attempt to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their project was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of fish bait – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

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

It is uncertain whether that animal was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, calculates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Protected Sharks Traded

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have treaty-based safeguards – like makos and hammerheads.

An multinational pact 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 released alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for accidental bycatch and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry 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 hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, or release a protected animal 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 support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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