These Apex Predators Risk Extinction in the Mediterranean Sea, Researchers Report

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

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an ocean protection organization. They note that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are being sold in marketplaces across North Africa.

These sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to catch them or to sell them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.

Videos shared online showing protected sharks being landed at North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The principal scientist, explained that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other stretch of water 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 near future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now listed as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their most recent effort to track and analyze the animals, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area considered a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

A primary objective of their expedition was to deploy a tracking device onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including frozen fish parts and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for surviving 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 caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, estimates that over forty great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Illegal Shark Trade

The scientists, along with regional contacts, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The protective legislation are complex. 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 mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and implementation differs from country to country.

A marine advocate 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the choice 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 local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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