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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a significant driver to their worrying decrease.

This conclusion is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an ocean protection organization. They report that various at-risk marine animals – such as the great white – are appearing for sale in fish markets across North Africa.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which makes it illegal to target them or to trade them.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

Footage from social media showing endangered sharks being unloaded in North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. Another, taken in a Tunisian location, shows parts of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, explained that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other sea is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been intensifying... and it's likely that they will go extinct in the near future."

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now designated as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their latest attempt to find and study the animals, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

One key aim of their mission was to deploy a tracking device onto a great white – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of fish bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Despite working for two weeks – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for remaining sharks, they also learned that a small great white had been caught and killed in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

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

The team, however, calculates 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.

Protected Sharks Traded

The scientists, along with regional contacts, are keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including the region.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have treaty-based safeguards – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

The agreement specifies "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and compliance varies from nation to nation.

A expert noted that his own investigation found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

"It shows that there is animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a chance of recovery."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the dilemma 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 scientist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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