Great white sharks face extinction in Mediterranean, say researchers

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are critically endangered, and illegal fishing is contributing to their decline.

This is evidenced by research by American scientists working in partnership with a British charity. Blue Marine Foundation. They say some of the most endangered species, including great white sharks, are sold in North African fish markets.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 species of Mediterranean sharks. protected by international lawThis means it is illegal to fish for them or sell them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, researchers found that at least 40 great white sharks were killed there in 2025 alone.

The BBC also found and independently verified footage on social media of protected sharks being transported dead to North African ports.

One video shows a great white beluga being pulled ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows the heads and fins of a short-finned mako shark, also endangered and protected, being prepared for sale.

Lead researcher Dr. Francesco Ferretti from Virginia Tech explained that many shark populations, particularly white sharks, has declined sharply in the Mediterranean over recent decades..

“No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean,” he said, speaking to a BBC News science team while working on a research vessel off the coast of Sicily in late 2025.

“The impact of industrial fishing is increasing… and it is likely that they will disappear in the near future.”

The population of Mediterranean white sharks is now classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

In their latest attempt to find and study the predators, Dr Ferretti and his team worked in the Strait of Sicily, an area between Sicily and North Africa that has been identified as the “last stronghold” in the Mediterranean for several critically endangered shark species.

One of the key goals of their mission was to attach a satellite tracking tag to a white shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean.

To try this, the researchers brought in more than three tons of fish bait – a shipping container filled with frozen mackerel and tuna waste – and 500 liters of tuna oil to create a “grease patch” that many sharks could smell from hundreds of meters away.

Despite working for two weeks – catching ocean bait, taking seawater samples to look for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to find a single animal that could be tagged.

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

“It’s disheartening,” Dr. Ferretti told us. “It just shows how degraded this ecosystem has become.”

While the team searched for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a juvenile great white had been caught and killed while fishing in North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is unclear whether the animal was accidentally caught in fishing gear or was targeted.

However, Dr Ferretti and his team estimate that more than 40 great white sharks were caught off this coast. “That's a lot for an endangered population,” he said.

The researchers, along with their colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Our work with the BBC Forensics team also shows that protected sharks are being caught, captured and offered for sale in countries such as Tunisia and Algeria.

We found footage posted on social media of a great white shark being unloaded at a fishing port in Algeria, and another large shark, which appears to be a protected short-finned mako, being prepared for sale on a cart at a fish market in Tunisia.

The rules for protecting sharks are complex. There are currently 24 critically endangered species under international legal protection, including makos, angelfish, threshers and hammerheads.

The EU and 23 Mediterranean countries signed agreementwhich states that these species cannot be “left on board, transhipped, unloaded, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale.”

The international agreement states: “They must be released unharmed and alive.” [where] Maybe”. These rules do not address incidental bycatch, and enforcement varies from country to country.

Blue Marine's James Glancy told BBC News that his own investigation had uncovered a number of white sharks being sold in fish markets in Tunisia. But he says there is a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks are showing up for sale.

“It shows there is still wildlife left,” he told BBC News. “And if we can maintain that, there's a chance of recovery.”

In poorer communities in North Africa, shark fishermen may face a choice between feeding their families or returning an endangered species to the ocean.

Sarah Almabrouk of the Libyan Society for Marine Biology says most catches in North African waters are accidental, but adds: “Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they need food for their babies?

“If you support them and teach them how to fish more sustainably, they won’t catch white sharks—or sharks at all.”

Blue Marine's James Glancy added that if Mediterranean countries work together, “there will be hope.”

“However,” he added, “we must act very quickly.”