Great White Sharks Face Disappearing in the Mediterranean, Experts Warn

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They report that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are being sold in ports across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which renders it unlawful to target them or to offer them for sale.

However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, scientists uncovered that at least 40 great white sharks have been killed there in 2025 alone.

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

One piece of footage showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a vessel in an Algerian port. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, stated that many shark populations – great whites especially – had plummeted 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 plausible that they will go extinct in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their new mission to find and study the predators, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their mission was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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 surviving sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that shark was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, calculates that over forty great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Protected Sharks Traded

The researchers, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Evidence shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, numerous species have treaty-based safeguards – 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 specifies "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for incidental capture and enforcement is variable from country to country.

A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found a number of sharks 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishers 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 need food for their children?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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