🔗 Share this article

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are on the verge of vanishing, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their worrying decrease.

This conclusion is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – like the great white shark – are being sold in ports across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to target them or to trade them.

However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists uncovered that at least 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

Videos shared online showing endangered sharks being landed at North African ports has been confirmed.

One video showed a sizeable great white shark being pulled from a boat from a vessel in an Algerian port. Additional footage, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

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

"No other sea is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

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

In their latest attempt to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their expedition was to deploy a tracking device onto a white shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of tuna oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Despite working for two weeks – laying bait, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any specimens.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been taken in a North African fishery – just not far from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that specimen was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, calculates that over forty great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "This is a lot for a critically endangered population," the researcher emphasized.

Illegal Shark Trade

The researchers, along with colleagues in North Africa, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding 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 "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

The agreement mandates "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for accidental bycatch and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A expert noted that his own investigation found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were turning up for sale.

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

The Path Forward

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to earn a livelihood, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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