Shark boffins have warned the iconic great white species faces extinction due to illegal fishing, with a research team failing to tag a single shark during a recent expedition
Great white sharks are in danger of disappearing from the Mediterranean Sea, with experts warning they face extinction due to illegal fishing. The warning comes as disturbing images surfaced of heads and fins of protected shark species going on sale at markets.
The iconic great white species, made famous by classic film Jaws, is one of more than 20 Mediterranean sharks protected under international law, meaning it is illegal to fish or sell them.
However, US researchers working with UK charity Blue Marine Foundation have discovered that during 2025, at least 40 great whites have been killed off the Mediterranean coast of North Africa.
Footage has appeared on social media of a slain protected shark being brought into a port in Algeria, while images have also showed heads and fins of a mako shark being prepared for sale at a fish market in Tunisia.
Dr Francesco Ferretti, from the US university Virginia Tech, told the BBC that populations of many shark species had dramatically fallen in the Mediterranean in recent decades.
“No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea,” he said, speaking to the BBC News science team from a research ship off the coast of Sicily in late 2025.
“The impact of industrial fishing has been intensifying… and it’s plausible that they will go extinct in the near future.”
Dr Ferretti and his team tried to tag great whites in an area between Sicily and North Africa that has been described as a “last stronghold” in the Mediterranean for threatened shark species.
However, after two weeks of baiting, filming underwater and taking samples of seawater to test for shark DNA, they failed to tag any sharks – and worryingly only managed to capture one blue shark on camera.
James Glancy from Blue Marine told BBC News he had found several white sharks on sale in Tunisian markets – and while it is illegal to fish them, he said the flip side was “It shows that there is wildlife left… And if we can preserve this, there is a chance of recovery.”
Many sharks could be caught by accident while fishing for other species, and in poorer North African communities, fishers who do so might face a difficult choice between return a threatened species to its habitat or feeding their family.
Sara Almabruk from the Libyan Marine Biology Society told the BBC: “If you support them and train them in more sustainable fishing, they will not catch white sharks – or any sharks.”
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