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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an international conservation charity. They note that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are being sold in ports across Northern African nations.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to catch them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the coastline of North Africa, the research team found that at least 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

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

One piece of footage showed a big shark being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a protected mako, which is also a species at risk.

Remaining Habitat

The principal scientist, clarified that many shark populations – white sharks in particular – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

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

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now listed as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their most recent effort to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their mission was to deploy a tracking device onto a white 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 "scent trail" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Despite working for two weeks – baiting the ocean, collecting water samples to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also learned that a juvenile great white had been taken in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that specimen was accidentally caught in gear, or if it was targeted.

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

Sharks for Sale

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complicated. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

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

The agreement specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle unintentional catch and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A marine advocate noted that his own investigation found multiple white 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 animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

What Can Be Done?

In less affluent areas 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 release sharks into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a local expert. "If you provide alternatives and education in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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