Great white sharks face extinction in Mediterranean, say researchers

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of extinction, with illegal fishing contributing to their decline.

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

Great white sharks are one of around 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, meaning it is illegal to fish or sell them.

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, images from social media showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports.

A video showed a large great white being brought ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows the heads and fins of what appears to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also an endangered and protected species, being prepared for sale.

Lead researcher Dr Francesco Ferretti from Virginia Tech University in the US explained that many shark populations, particularly white sharks, had declined significantly in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

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

“The impact of industrial fishing has intensified…and it is plausible that it will disappear in the near future.”

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

In their latest attempt to research and study 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 Mediterranean’s “last stronghold” for several endangered shark species.

One of the main goals of their mission was to install a satellite tracking tag on a white shark, something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

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

Despite two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, taking seawater samples to look for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – researchers were unable to find any animals to tag.

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

“It’s discouraging,” Dr. Ferretti told us. “It shows how degraded this ecosystem is.”

As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also received information that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a North African fishery, just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

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

However, Dr Ferretti and his team estimate that more than 40 great white sharks have been caught around this coast. “That’s a lot for a critically endangered population,” he said.

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

We found images – posted on social media – of a great white shark landed at a fishing port in Algeria and another large shark, which appears to be a protected shortfin mako, being prepared for sale on a cart at a fish market in Tunisia.

The rules that protect sharks are complicated. Currently, 24 endangered species benefit from international legal protection, including the porbeagle, thresher shark, thresher shark and hammerhead shark.

The EU and 23 countries around the Mediterranean have signed an agreement which stipulates that these species cannot be “kept on board, transhipped, disembarked, transferred, stored, sold or exhibited or offered for sale”.

The international agreement states “that they must be released unharmed and alive.” [where] possible”. These rules do not address accidental bycatch and their application varies from country to country.

Blue Marine’s James Glancy told BBC News that his own investigation had revealed the presence of several white sharks for sale in Tunisian fishing markets. But, he says, there is a paradoxical element of hope in white sharks being put up for sale.

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

In North Africa’s poorest communities, fishermen who catch sharks may be faced with the choice between feeding their families or returning an endangered species to the ocean.

Sara Almabruk of the Libyan Society of 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 children?”

“If you support them and train them in more sustainable fishing, they won’t catch white sharks – or any sharks.”

Blue Marine’s James Glancy added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, “there would be hope.”

“But,” he added, “we have to act very quickly.”