These Apex Predators Risk Extinction in the Mediterranean Sea, Scientists Report

The iconic great white in the Mediterranean basin are facing a serious threat of extinction, with unlawful fishing practices being a key factor to their rapid population drop.

This conclusion is based on studies conducted by experts, who collaborated with an ocean protection organization. They report that some of the most threatened species – like the great white shark – are being sold in marketplaces across the North African coast.

Great white sharks are one of over twenty Mediterranean shark species protected under international law, which prohibits to target them or to sell them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team found that at least 40 great white sharks have been slaughtered in that region in just the past year.

Footage from social media showing protected sharks being brought dead into North African ports has been authenticated.

A particular clip showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a fishing boat in an Algerian port. A separate video, taken in a Tunisian location, shows parts of what is believed to be a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The principal scientist, explained that many shark populations – particularly great whites – had suffered a severe drop in the Mediterranean in recent decades.

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

The Mediterranean white shark population is now listed as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their latest attempt to find and study the sharks, the team worked in the waters between Sicily and North Africa – an area known as a "final refuge" in the Mediterranean for several sharks at risk.

A primary objective of their mission was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has not yet been accomplished in the Mediterranean Sea.

To attempt this, the researchers used a large amount of bait – including frozen mackerel and tuna scraps and 500 litres of scent oil to create a "fat slick" that many sharks can smell from hundreds of metres away.

Even after a fortnight of effort – baiting the ocean, collecting water samples to test for environmental DNA and using subsea cameras – the researchers failed to encounter any animals to tag.

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

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

During their search for surviving sharks, they also received reports that a young great white shark 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 animal was ensnared unintentionally in nets or lines, or if it was targeted.

The team, however, calculates 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 regional contacts, are observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are taken and traded in countries including the region.

The protective legislation are complex. Currently, numerous species have global protection – such as makos, angel sharks, threshers, 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 released alive [where] possible". Those rules do not tackle accidental bycatch and implementation differs from one place to another.

A marine advocate noted that his own research found a number of 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 wildlife left," he said. "And if we can preserve this, there is a chance of recovery."

What Can Be Done?

In poorer communities in North Africa, fishing communities who catch sharks might face the dilemma 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 must feed their households?" asked a local expert. "If you assist and guide them in more selective fishing, they will not catch protected species."

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

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