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These formidable predators in the Mediterranean Sea are on the verge of vanishing, with poaching being a key factor to their worrying decrease.

This assessment is based on investigations carried out by researchers, who worked alongside an international conservation charity. They indicate that some of the most threatened species – such as the great white – are appearing for sale in ports across Northern African nations.

These sharks are one of more than 20 Mediterranean shark species safeguarded by global treaties, which renders it unlawful to target them or to sell them.

However, by monitoring fishing ports along the North African Mediterranean shoreline, the research team 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 sharks under protection being brought dead into North African ports has been confirmed.

One video showed a sizeable great white shark being dragged onto land from a vessel in Algeria. A separate video, filmed in Tunisia, shows heads and fins of what looks like a mako shark, which is also a threatened and protected species.

Last Shark Stronghold

The project head, explained that many shark populations – great whites especially – had plummeted in the Mediterranean in the past years.

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

The Mediterranean great whites is now designated as Critically Endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

In their new mission to track and analyze the sharks, the team worked in the Strait of Sicily – an area known as a "key remaining habitat" in the Mediterranean for several endangered shark species.

One key aim of their expedition was to fit a satellite tracking tag onto a shark – something that has never been done 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 tuna oil to create a "oil slick" that many sharks can sense from far off.

Even after a fortnight of effort – laying bait, sampling for DNA to look for genetic material and using remote cameras – the researchers did not manage to find any specimens.

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

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

As the team searched for remaining sharks, they also learned that a young great white shark had been caught and killed in a regional fishery – just 20 nautical miles from where they were working.

It is uncertain whether that animal was caught by accident in nets or lines, or if it was hunted.

The team, however, estimates that in excess of 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 observing various harbors in the region. Findings shows that sharks under protection are caught, landed and offered for sale in countries including several North African nations.

The rules that protect sharks are complex. Currently, 24 threatened species have international legal protection – including mako, angel, threshers and hammerheads.

An regional treaty states that those species cannot be "kept on boats, transferred, landed, stored, or sold".

The agreement states "they must be returned to the sea alive [where] possible". Those rules do not address incidental capture and enforcement is variable from nation to nation.

A expert 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 appearing in trade.

"It shows that there is life remaining," 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, fishers who catch sharks might face the choice of whether to feed their family, 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 responsible fishing, they will not catch white sharks."

An advocate added that if countries around the Mediterranean joined forces, "there is hope."

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