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The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are in danger of disappearing, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who partnered with an marine preservation group. They report that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are found on sale in ports across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which prohibits to target them or to offer them for sale.

However, by observing harbors along the coastline of North Africa, scientists uncovered that at least 40 great white sharks have been caught and killed there in just the past year.

Footage from social media showing protected sharks being landed at North African ports has been independently verified.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a trawler in Algeria. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows remains and fins of what is believed to be a short-finned mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The lead researcher, explained that many populations of sharks – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been intensifying... and it's plausible that they will go extinct in the coming years."

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

In their latest attempt to track and analyze the predators, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

A primary objective of their project was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used over three tons of fish bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and hundreds of liters of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can detect from a great distance.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any animals to tag.

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

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

As the team searched for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a small great white had been caught and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is unknown whether that shark was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, calculates 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 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 protective legislation are complicated. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – like makos 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 mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address unintentional catch and compliance varies from country to country.

A expert noted that his own inquiry found a number of sharks 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 life remaining," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a possibility of comeback."

The Path Forward

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities 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 release sharks into the sea when they require sustenance for their families?" asked a local expert. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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