The Great White Are on the Brink of Vanishing in the Mediterranean Sea, Experts State

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They indicate that several critically endangered species – like the great white shark – are being sold in marketplaces across Northern African nations.

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

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the coastline of North Africa, investigators discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there in the single year of 2025.

Footage from social media showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.

One video showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a vessel in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The principal scientist, explained that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other sea is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will go extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their new mission to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their mission was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a great white – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and hundreds of liters of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Despite working for two weeks – chumming the water, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also learned that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that shark was accidentally caught in fishing gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, estimates that over forty 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 scientists, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The rules that protect sharks are multifaceted. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal 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 implementation differs from nation to nation.

A marine advocate noted that his own research 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a possibility of comeback."

What Can Be Done?

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, 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 local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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