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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with illegal fishing being a major contributor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are being sold in marketplaces across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which makes it illegal to target them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, the research team found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

Videos shared online showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

One video showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows parts of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The project head, explained that many shark species – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent 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 plausible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now designated as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area identified as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their expedition was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including baitfish and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any specimens.

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

"It's disheartening," 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 caught and killed in a North African fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

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

Protected Sharks Traded

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including several North African nations.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

An regional treaty 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 tackle accidental bycatch and compliance varies from country to country.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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