The Great White Are on the Brink of Extinction in the Mediterranean Sea, Experts Report

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a significant driver to their worrying decrease.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They note that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are appearing for sale in ports across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in 2025 alone.

Social media clips showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a trawler in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The principal scientist, explained that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been intensifying... and it's possible that they will go extinct in the near future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their project was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a great white – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of fish bait – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "fat 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 underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter 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 degraded this habitat is."

During their search for living sharks, they also learned that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that shark was accidentally caught in gear, or if it was hunted.

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

Illegal Shark Trade

The researchers, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are taken and traded in countries including the region.

The rules that protect sharks are complicated. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An multinational pact states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

The agreement specifies "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own research found multiple white sharks 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 life remaining," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."

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