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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 rapid population drop.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They indicate that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are found on sale in fish markets across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which renders it unlawful to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

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

Social media clips showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a vessel in an Algerian port. Another, taken in a Tunisian location, 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, clarified that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other sea is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been intensifying... and it's likely that they will become extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their new mission to find and study the predators, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

One key aim of their expedition was to fit a satellite tracking 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 500 litres of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Even after a fortnight of effort – chumming the water, taking samples of seawater to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any specimens.

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

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

As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also learned that a small great white had been taken in a fishery off North Africa – just not far from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that animal was accidentally caught in gear, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, believes 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 local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, 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 specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and implementation differs from nation to nation.

A conservationist noted that his own investigation found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"It shows that there is life remaining," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to provide for their families, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a scientist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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