The Great White Risk Disappearing in the Mediterranean, Experts Report

Great white sharks in the Mediterranean Sea are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a significant driver to their rapid population drop.

This conclusion is based on research by scientists, who collaborated with an international conservation charity. They report that several critically endangered species – including great white sharks – are found on sale in ports across Northern African nations.

These sharks are one of in excess of 20 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 killed there in just the past year.

Footage from social media showing sharks under protection being unloaded in North African ports has been authenticated.

One piece of footage showed a large great white being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in Algeria. Another, recorded in Tunisia, shows remains and fins of what appears to be a protected mako, which is also a protected and endangered species.

Remaining Habitat

The project head, clarified that many shark species – white sharks in particular – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

"No other stretch of water is subjected to such fishing pressure as the Mediterranean Sea," he said. "The consequences of commercial fishing has been growing... and it's likely that they will become extinct in the near future."

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 animals, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their project was to deploy a tracking device onto a great white – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

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

After two weeks of work – laying bait, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using underwater cameras – the researchers were unable to locate any sharks to tag.

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

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

While the team was searching for living sharks, they also were informed that a juvenile great white had been taken in a North African fishery – just not far from where they were working.

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

The team, however, estimates 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 colleagues in North Africa, are monitoring several fishing ports in the region. Findings shows that endangered sharks are captured, brought to port, and sold in countries including Tunisia and Algeria.

The protective legislation are complicated. Currently, numerous species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers 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 mandates "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle accidental bycatch and enforcement is variable from one place to another.

A conservationist noted that his own research found several great whites on sale. But, he said, there was a paradoxical element of hope 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 possibility of comeback."

What Can Be Done?

In economically challenged regions in North Africa, fishers who catch sharks might face the decision of whether to provide for their families, or release a protected animal to the ocean.

"Why would they throw sharks back into the sea when they need food for their children?" asked a scientist. "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 worked together, "there is hope."

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