Great White Sharks Face Disappearing in the Mediterranean Sea, Researchers Report

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an ocean protection organization. They note that several critically endangered species – including great white sharks – are found on sale in marketplaces across Northern African nations.

Great white sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which prohibits to catch them or to trade them.

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

Footage from social media showing endangered sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a trawler in an Algerian port. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what appears to be a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The principal scientist, stated that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's likely that they will vanish in the near future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean 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 considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their mission was to deploy a tracking device onto a white shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of fish bait – including baitfish and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using subsea cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that shark was caught by accident in gear, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, believes that over forty great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Illegal Shark Trade

The researchers, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Evidence shows that protected sharks are taken and traded in countries including several North African nations.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have treaty-based safeguards – 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 unintentional catch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A marine advocate 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 turning up for sale.

"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 poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to earn a livelihood, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

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

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

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