Great White Sharks Are on the Brink of Disappearing in the Mediterranean, Scientists Report

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with illegal fishing being a major contributor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across North Africa.

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

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

Videos shared online showing endangered sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.

One video showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows parts of what looks like a protected mako, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Remaining Habitat

The lead researcher, clarified that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other sea is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now designated as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the animals, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area identified as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

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

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

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for living sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark had been captured and killed in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that animal was ensnared unintentionally in fishing gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, calculates 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 scientists, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – like makos and hammerheads.

An regional treaty 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 returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for unintentional catch and enforcement is variable from country to country.

A marine advocate 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 possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to earn a livelihood, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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