These formidable predators in the Mediterranean waters are facing a serious threat of extinction, with poaching being a major contributor to their rapid population drop.
This conclusion is based on studies conducted by experts, who partnered with an international conservation charity. They note that various at-risk marine animals – like the great white shark – are appearing for sale in marketplaces across Northern African nations.
Great whites are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species shielded by international agreements, which renders it unlawful to catch them or to trade them.
However, by observing harbors along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team found that a minimum of forty great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.
Social media clips showing sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been independently verified.
One piece of footage showed a large great white being hauled ashore from a fishing boat in Algeria. Additional footage, filmed in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a protected and endangered species.
Final Refuge
The lead researcher, clarified that many shark species – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in the past years.
"No other stretch of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been increasing... and it's possible that they will become extinct in the near future."
The population of great whites in the Mediterranean is now classified as Critically Endangered by the global conservation union.
In their latest attempt to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "last stronghold" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.
An important goal of their mission was to attach a satellite tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.
To do this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of fish oil to create a "scent trail" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.
After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to search for shark DNA and using remote 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 disheartening," the lead researcher said. "It just shows how damaged this habitat is."
While the team was searching for living sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a regional fishery – just not far from where they were working.
It is uncertain whether that shark was accidentally caught in gear, or if it was hunted.
The team, however, estimates that more than 40 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 keeping watch on multiple ports in the region. Documentation shows that endangered sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.
The regulations safeguarding sharks are complicated. Currently, two dozen endangered species have international legal protection – like makos and hammerheads.
An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale".
The agreement states "they must be released unharmed and alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle incidental capture and compliance varies from country to country.
A marine advocate noted that his own inquiry found a number of 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 animals still there," he said. "And if we can safeguard this, there is a hope for revival."
What Can Be Done?
In less affluent areas in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to provide for their families, or return a threatened species to the ocean.
"Why would they release sharks into the sea when they must feed their households?" asked a scientist. "If you assist and guide them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch these sharks."
Another expert added that if countries around the Mediterranean collaborated, "there is hope."
"But," he stated, "we've got to act very quickly."
