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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean basin are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This finding is based on studies conducted by experts, who worked alongside an marine preservation group. They indicate that various at-risk marine animals – like the great white shark – are being sold in fish markets across Northern African nations.

Great white sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which makes it illegal to catch them or to sell them.

However, by surveying docks along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa, investigators found that no fewer than 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

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

One video showed a big shark being dragged onto land from a vessel in an Algerian port. Another, taken in a Tunisian location, shows heads and fins of what appears to be a mako shark, which is also a species at risk.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, clarified that many shark species – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the last few decades.

"No other body of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The effects of large-scale fishing has been intensifying... and it's plausible that they will vanish in the foreseeable future."

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

In their new mission to locate and research the sharks, the team worked in the Sicilian Strait – an area identified as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their project was to fit a satellite tracking 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 fish oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, taking samples of seawater to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a juvenile great white had been captured and killed in a fishery off North Africa – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that animal was ensnared unintentionally in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, estimates that in excess of 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 regional contacts, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Documentation shows that protected sharks are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including the region.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, two dozen endangered 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 mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and compliance varies from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own inquiry found multiple white sharks on sale. But, he said, there was a unexpected hopeful sign in the fact that white sharks were appearing in trade.

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

The Path Forward

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishermen 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 require sustenance for their families?" asked a regional marine biologist. "If you support them and train them in more selective fishing, they will not catch these sharks."

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

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