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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This conclusion is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They report that several critically endangered species – like the great white shark – are being sold in marketplaces across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which makes it illegal to target them or to trade them.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in the single year of 2025.

Social media clips showing endangered sharks being landed at North African ports has been confirmed.

One piece of footage showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, stated that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the past years.

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

The Mediterranean white shark population is now classified as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to find and study the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

A primary objective of their expedition was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag.

They captured only a brief glimpse of one blue shark on their submarine cameras.

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a small 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 ensnared unintentionally in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, estimates that over forty great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "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 protected sharks are taken and traded in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complicated. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

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

The agreement specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for incidental capture and implementation differs from country to country.

A marine advocate 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 appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a chance of recovery."

The Path Forward

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the dilemma of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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