🔗 Share this article

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with unlawful fishing practices being a major contributor to their worrying decrease.

This finding is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an ocean protection organization. They note that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are found on sale in ports across Northern African nations.

These sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to fish for them or to offer them for sale.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, scientists found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in just the past year.

Footage from social media showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

A particular clip showed a big shark being pulled from a boat from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, stated that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had declined dramatically in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now listed as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their new mission to find and study the animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a great white – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including baitfish and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also learned that a young great white shark had been caught and killed in a regional fishery – just a short distance from where they were working.

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

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.

Sharks for Sale

The team, along with local partners, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that sharks under protection 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 – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An multinational pact states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".

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

A conservationist noted that his own investigation found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a seeming silver lining in the fact that white sharks were being found in markets.

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

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

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

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

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