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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a significant driver to their worrying decrease.

This conclusion is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They indicate that several critically endangered species – like the great white shark – are being sold in fish markets across North Africa.

Great whites are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there in the single year of 2025.

Social media clips showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.

One video showed a big shark being hauled ashore from a trawler in an Algerian port. Another, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The principal scientist, stated that many shark populations – particularly great whites – 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 intensifying... and it's plausible that they will become extinct 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 track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their expedition was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen fish parts and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for living sharks, they also were informed that a young great white shark had been captured and killed in a North African fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

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

Illegal Shark Trade

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings 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 – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

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

The agreement specifies "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle accidental bycatch and compliance varies from country to country.

A conservationist noted that his own investigation found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to feed their family, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a scientist. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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