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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are on the verge of vanishing, with unlawful fishing practices being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an international conservation charity. They indicate that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across Northern African nations.

Great white sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which makes it illegal to target them or to sell them.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators found that at least 40 great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing endangered sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been independently verified.

One video showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, clarified that many populations of sharks – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other sea is exploited as heavily 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 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 waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

A primary objective of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a great white – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of chum – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of fish oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, collecting water samples to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag.

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

"It's disheartening," 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 captured and killed in a regional fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that specimen was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

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

Sharks for Sale

The team, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including the region.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

The agreement mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for accidental bycatch and implementation differs from nation to nation.

A marine advocate noted that his own research found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

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

The Path Forward

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the decision 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 scientist. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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