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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a major contributor to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They note that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which makes it illegal to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators found that at least 40 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 authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a vessel in an Algerian port. Another, taken in a Tunisian location, shows parts of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

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

"No other body of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been increasing... and it's likely that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

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

In their latest attempt to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

A primary objective of their expedition was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of tuna oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to look for genetic material and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching 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 unknown whether that shark was caught by accident in fishing gear, or if it was hunted.

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.

Illegal Shark Trade

The team, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have treaty-based safeguards – 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 tackle unintentional catch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A expert 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 being found in markets.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species 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 these sharks."

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

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