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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This assessment is based on studies conducted by experts, who collaborated with an international conservation charity. They report that several critically endangered species – like the great white shark – are being sold in ports across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which makes it illegal to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in just the past year.

Social media clips showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been confirmed.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a vessel in an Algerian port. A separate video, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what looks like a protected mako, which is also a species at risk.

Final Refuge

The project head, explained that many shark populations – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other sea is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the near 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 Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their expedition was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used a large amount of fish bait – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Despite working for two weeks – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also learned that a small great white had been taken in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that shark was ensnared unintentionally in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, estimates that more than 40 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 team, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, 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 released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and enforcement is variable from country to country.

A marine advocate noted that his own research found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to feed their family, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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