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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This conclusion is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They report that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across North Africa.

Great whites are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to fish for them or to sell them.

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

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

One piece of footage showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, explained that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the past years.

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

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to find and study the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area identified as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

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

To do this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of chum – including baitfish and hundreds of liters of fish oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, collecting water samples to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any specimens.

They captured only a short sighting of one shark on their underwater cameras.

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark had been taken in a regional fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

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

The team, however, estimates that more than 40 great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Protected Sharks Traded

The team, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, numerous 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 states "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and compliance varies from one place to another.

A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found several great whites 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to feed their family, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a scientist. "If you support them and train them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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