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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean basin are in danger of disappearing, with unlawful fishing practices being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This conclusion is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They indicate that several critically endangered species – including great white sharks – are appearing for sale in fish markets across North Africa.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to target them or to trade them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the coastline of North Africa, scientists discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

Videos shared online showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been authenticated.

One video showed a big shark being hauled ashore from a vessel in an Algerian port. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, clarified that many shark species – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other stretch of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been growing... and it's possible that they will become extinct in the foreseeable future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now classified as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their project was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of bait – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Despite working for two weeks – chumming the water, collecting water samples to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark had been caught and killed in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, believes 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.

Sharks for Sale

The researchers, along with local partners, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

An international agreement 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 unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address unintentional catch and compliance varies from nation to nation.

A expert noted that his own investigation found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can protect this, there is a chance of recovery."

The Path Forward

In poorer communities 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 local expert. "If you support them and train them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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