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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with unlawful fishing practices being a major contributor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They report that several critically endangered species – like the great white shark – are found on sale in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to target them or to offer them for sale.

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

Footage from social media showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been independently verified.

One video showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Remaining Habitat

The project head, clarified that many shark populations – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

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

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

In their new mission to locate and research the predators, 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.

One key aim of their project was to attach a satellite tag onto a great white – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any animals to tag.

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

"It's disheartening," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this marine environment is."

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been caught and killed in a regional fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that specimen was caught by accident in gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, believes that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Sharks for Sale

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Evidence shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including the region.

The rules that protect sharks are multifaceted. Currently, two dozen endangered species have treaty-based safeguards – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

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

The agreement specifies "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle incidental capture and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A marine advocate noted that his own investigation 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 animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities 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 discard their catch into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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