🔗 Share this article These Apex Predators Face Extinction in the Mediterranean, Scientists Warn The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their rapid population drop. This assessment is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They report that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are being sold in marketplaces across Northern African nations. Great white sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which prohibits to target them or to trade them. However, by monitoring fishing ports along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, the research team discovered that at least 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone. Experts say they have documented protected species for sale in fish markets in the region. Footage from social media showing protected sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been independently verified. A particular clip showed a sizeable great white shark being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species. Final Refuge The scientific team worked from a boat in the Sicily Strait. The principal scientist, clarified that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades. "No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the coming years." 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 locate and research the animals, 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 project was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea. To do this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off. Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag. They captured only a brief glimpse of one shark on their underwater cameras. "It's discouraging," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this ecosystem is." As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also were informed that a small great white had been taken in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working. It is not clear whether that shark was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught. The team, however, estimates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized. Protected Sharks Traded Research in North African markets in 2023 discovered protected sharks being traded. The scientists, along with local partners, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Findings shows that endangered sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria. The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – like makos and hammerheads. An international agreement states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold". The agreement states "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle unintentional catch and implementation differs from country to country. The researchers used baited underwater cameras to survey the region. A conservationist 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 appearing in trade. "It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a hope for revival." The Path Forward In less affluent areas 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 discard their catch into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch white sharks." Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope." "But," he continued, "we've got to act very quickly."