🔗 Share this article

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a major contributor to their alarming decline.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They indicate that several critically endangered species – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across the North African coast.

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which prohibits to fish for them or to sell them.

However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, scientists found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been caught and killed there in just the past year.

Social media clips showing sharks under protection being landed at North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being pulled from a boat from a fishing boat in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Final Refuge

The project head, stated that many shark species – white sharks in particular – 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 impact of industrial fishing has been growing... 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 key international body.

In their most recent effort to track and analyze the predators, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

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

To try this, the researchers used a large amount of fish bait – including frozen fish parts and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Despite working for two weeks – chumming the water, sampling for DNA to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any specimens.

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

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

During their search for living sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been caught and killed in a North African fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is not clear whether that animal was caught by accident in gear, or if it was deliberately caught.

The team, however, believes 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.

Illegal Shark Trade

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

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, and hammerheads.

An international agreement 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 are not designed for incidental capture and enforcement is variable from country to country.

A expert noted that his own research found a number of sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

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

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions 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 local expert. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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