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Great white sharks in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a major contributor to their alarming decline.

This finding is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an marine preservation group. They report that several critically endangered species – like the great white shark – are being sold in ports across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to target them or to offer them for sale.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team found that at least 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

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

One video showed a sizeable great white shark being pulled from a boat from a trawler in Algeria. Additional footage, recorded in Tunisia, shows parts of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, clarified that many populations of sharks – white sharks in particular – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

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

The Mediterranean great whites is now classified as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their latest attempt to locate and research the predators, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area considered a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several threatened shark species.

An important goal of their expedition 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 over three tons of bait – including frozen fish parts and a substantial volume of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

After two weeks of work – baiting the ocean, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also learned that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that animal was ensnared unintentionally in nets or lines, or if it was deliberately caught.

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

Illegal Shark Trade

The scientists, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Evidence shows that protected sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – 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 specifies "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules are not designed for accidental bycatch and compliance varies from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

"It shows that there is wildlife left," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a possibility of comeback."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to provide for their families, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they discard their catch into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a local expert. "If you provide alternatives and education in more selective fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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