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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are being sold in fish markets across North Africa.

These sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to target them or to trade them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, scientists uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in the single year of 2025.

Social media clips showing endangered sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a big shark being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, clarified that many shark populations – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"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 go extinct in the coming years."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now listed as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their new mission to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area identified as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

One key aim of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used a large amount of fish bait – including baitfish and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Despite working for two weeks – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any specimens.

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

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

During their search for living 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 uncertain whether that specimen was ensnared unintentionally in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, calculates that more than 40 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 team, along with regional contacts, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, numerous species have global protection – 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 mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and compliance varies from nation to nation.

A marine advocate noted that his own investigation found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In economically challenged regions 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 local expert. "If you provide alternatives and education in more responsible fishing, they will not catch white 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."