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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They note that some of the most threatened species – including great white sharks – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across Northern African nations.

Great whites are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators uncovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in 2025 alone.

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

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being hauled ashore from a trawler in an Algerian port. A separate video, recorded in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Remaining Habitat

The project head, clarified that many shark species – great whites especially – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

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

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their new mission to track and analyze the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area identified as a "final refuge" 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 more than three tonnes of fish bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

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

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just not far from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was ensnared unintentionally in gear, or if it was hunted.

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 regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Evidence shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The rules that protect sharks are complicated. Currently, 24 threatened species have global protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

The agreement mandates "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address unintentional catch and compliance varies from nation to nation.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry found several great whites 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 life remaining," 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 throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a scientist. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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