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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with illegal fishing being a significant driver to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on studies conducted by experts, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They note that some of the most threatened species – including great white sharks – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators discovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there in just the past year.

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

One video showed a big shark being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Remaining Habitat

The project head, explained that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

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

The Mediterranean great whites is now listed as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their most recent effort to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

One key aim of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a great white – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including baitfish and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using subsea cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, calculates that over forty 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 scientists, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including the region.

The rules that protect sharks are complicated. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

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

The agreement mandates "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and implementation differs from nation to nation.

A marine advocate noted that his own research found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is life remaining," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishing communities 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 regional marine biologist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch protected species."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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