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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean waters are in danger of disappearing, with illegal fishing being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

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

Great whites are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to catch them or to trade them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, scientists discovered that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in just the past year.

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

One piece of footage showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a trawler in Algeria. Another, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, clarified that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other sea is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been intensifying... and it's possible that they will become extinct in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean great whites is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.

In their new mission to find and study the predators, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area identified as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

An important goal of their expedition was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To try this, the researchers used over three tons of bait – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Even after a fortnight of effort – chumming the water, collecting water samples to search for shark DNA and using underwater cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark had been taken in a regional fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that specimen was caught by accident in gear, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, calculates that more than 40 great white sharks have been caught around that coast. "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 sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are multifaceted. Currently, numerous species have treaty-based safeguards – like makos 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 returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and enforcement is variable from country to country.

A conservationist noted that his own research found a number of sharks 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 animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."

Possible Solutions

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, or return a threatened species to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a scientist. "If you provide alternatives and education in more responsible fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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