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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of disappearing, with illegal fishing being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This conclusion is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an ocean protection organization. They report that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are appearing for sale in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team discovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in just the past year.

Footage from social media showing protected sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. Additional footage, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, stated that many populations of sharks – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other stretch of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been increasing... 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 global conservation union.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area identified as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

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

To try this, the researchers used a large amount of chum – including baitfish and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

"It's discouraging," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this habitat is."

As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a small 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 specimen was ensnared unintentionally in fishing gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, estimates that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been harvested in that area. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Sharks for Sale

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An multinational pact states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

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

A marine advocate noted that his own investigation 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 animals still there," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the choice 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 require sustenance for their families?" asked a local expert. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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