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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean basin are in danger of disappearing, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on research by scientists, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They report that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are being sold in fish markets across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to target them or to trade them.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators discovered that a minimum of forty 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 confirmed.

One piece of footage showed a sizeable great white shark being hauled ashore from a vessel in an Algerian port. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, stated that many shark populations – great whites especially – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the past years.

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

The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now listed as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their most recent effort to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

One key aim of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a white shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used a large amount of chum – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and hundreds of liters of tuna oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – chumming the water, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any sharks to tag.

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just not far from where they were working.

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

The team, however, believes that over forty 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 researchers, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Evidence shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The protective legislation are complicated. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – 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 states "they must be released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address accidental bycatch 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 protect this, there is a chance of recovery."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities 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 discard their catch into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you support them and train them in more responsible fishing, they will not catch protected species."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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