🔗 Share this article

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

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They note that various at-risk marine animals – including great white sharks – are being sold in ports across North Africa.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to target them or to trade them.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators uncovered that at least 40 great white sharks have been killed there in just the past year.

Social media clips showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.

One video showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a trawler in Algeria. Another, recorded in Tunisia, shows parts of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Remaining Habitat

The principal scientist, clarified that many populations of sharks – great whites especially – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other body of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been growing... and it's plausible that they will become extinct in the near future."

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

In their latest attempt to find and study the predators, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area identified as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

One key aim of their project was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a white shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used more than three tonnes of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and a substantial volume of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, collecting water samples to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

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

It is not clear whether that animal was accidentally caught in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

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

Sharks for Sale

The team, along with regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are taken and traded in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered species have global protection – 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 tackle unintentional catch and implementation differs from one place to another.

A marine advocate noted that his own research found multiple white sharks 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can protect 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 throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

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

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

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