🔗 Share this article

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a key factor to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on studies conducted by experts, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are appearing for sale in ports across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which renders it unlawful to fish for them or to trade them.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, the research team found that at least 40 great white sharks have been killed there in just the past year.

Footage from social media showing protected sharks being landed at North African ports has been confirmed.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The principal scientist, stated that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

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

The Mediterranean great whites is now listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their latest attempt to find and study the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

One key aim of their project was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a small great white had been caught and killed in a North African fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that specimen was accidentally caught 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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The researchers, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The rules that protect sharks are multifaceted. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

An multinational pact states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

The agreement states "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for unintentional catch and implementation differs from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own investigation found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"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 poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to feed their family, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they discard their catch into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a scientist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

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

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