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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on studies conducted by experts, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They report that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are found on sale in fish markets across Northern African nations.

These sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to target them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been killed there 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 pulled from a boat from a vessel in Algeria. Another, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, clarified that many shark species – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other stretch of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the coming years."

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

In their new mission to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

An important goal of their mission was to deploy a tracking device onto a white shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – chumming the water, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also were informed that a small great white had been taken in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, believes that in excess of 40 great white sharks have been taken along that coastline. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Protected Sharks Traded

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including the region.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, numerous species have treaty-based safeguards – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, 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 do not address incidental capture and implementation differs from country to country.

A conservationist noted that his own investigation found several great whites 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the dilemma 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 regional marine biologist. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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