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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They note that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are being sold in marketplaces across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which makes it illegal to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

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

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

One piece of footage showed a big shark being hauled ashore from a vessel in an Algerian port. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows parts of what is believed to be a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, stated that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been growing... and it's plausible that they will become extinct in the near future."

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

In their most recent effort to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

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

To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Despite working for two weeks – laying bait, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any animals to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a small great white had been caught and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

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

The team, however, estimates that more than 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 regional contacts, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Findings shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including the region.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are multifaceted. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – like makos and hammerheads.

An regional treaty 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 are not designed for unintentional catch and compliance varies from country to country.

A expert noted that his own research found a number of 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 safeguard this, there is a chance of recovery."

What Can Be Done?

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to provide for their families, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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