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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean Sea are in danger of disappearing, with poaching being a key factor to their worrying decrease.

This conclusion is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They note that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across the North African coast.

These sharks are one of in excess of 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which makes it illegal to catch them or to trade them.

However, by surveying docks along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, investigators uncovered that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

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

One video showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in Algeria. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what appears to be a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Final Refuge

The lead researcher, clarified that many shark populations – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the past years.

"No other body of water is exploited as heavily as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The impact of industrial fishing has been increasing... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

The Mediterranean white shark population is now designated as Critically Endangered by the key international body.

In their new mission to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area considered a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

An important goal of their mission was to deploy a tracking device onto a shark – something that has remained unachieved in the Mediterranean Sea.

To do this, the researchers used over three tons of chum – including frozen fish parts and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using remote cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any sharks to tag.

They captured only a short sighting of one blue shark species on their submarine cameras.

"It's disappointing," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this habitat is."

During their search for remaining sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been taken in a regional fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that animal was caught by accident 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 team, along with colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Evidence shows that sharks under protection are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including several North African nations.

The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, two dozen endangered 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 do not tackle incidental capture and implementation differs from one place to another.

A expert noted that his own research found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign 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 chance of recovery."

Possible Solutions

In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to earn a livelihood, or throw back an endangered shark to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you support them and train them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

A conservationist added that if countries around the Mediterranean worked together, "there is hope."

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