The great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) is the largest living macropredatory shark and fish. It is identified as a mackerel shark and closely related to the mako sharks, the porbeagle and the salmon shark. This robustly built species with a grayish upper-side and a white underside, are already a vulnerable population. Now the researchers say that it is of is under threat of regional extinction due to habitat stresses and illicit fishing in the Mediterranean Sea.
Scientific teams from the United States and the United Kingdom that are working with conservation organisations, have noticed continuous declines in shark sightings and direct evidence of dead sharks in fishing ports along the North African coast of the Mediterranean, signaling a serious crisis for the apex predator’s conservation.
Regional and international accords are in place to legally protect more than 20 shark and ray species in the Mediterranean including great white sharks. A United Nations-endorsed plan comprising the European Union and 23 Mediterranean governments codified these restrictions, which forbid keeping, landing, selling, or trading specified species and mandate their release upon capture. However, deliberate targeting or unintentional bycatch compromise laws’ effectiveness while their implementation varies widely between countries. At least forty great white sharks were killed or discovered dead in and around Tunisia and Algeria seafood markets in 2025 alone in spite of protection in place. These figures are concerning, as they highlight the effects of fishing pressure from both industrial fleets and smaller coastal operations. DNA study of the great white sharks show that they have a long evolutionary history in the Mediterranean, having lived there for more than three million years. The long period they have been in the seas, however hasn’t protected them from contemporary dangers. Sea populations are considered to be small and genetically unique, which makes them especially susceptible to local extinction.
These issues are worsened by broader environmental changes in the Mediterranean, the researchers say. The biological balance of the sea has changed due to changes in prey distribution, ocean temperature patterns and a general reduction in marine biodiversity. According to statistics, traditional coastal hotspots for great white sightings have also decreased and the remaining surviving individuals are now more likely to be spotted offshore or in more difficult-to-reach locations.
As the species are low in numbers, it has hindered efforts to study and conserve the remaining great white sharks. In regions like the Strait of Sicily, recent field trips to tag sharks for tracking and genetic sample produced relatively few encounters, highlighting how rare these animals have become in locations within the Mediterranean that previously had a strong presence of the species.
The dramatic reduction of top predators like great white sharks show that elasmobranch populations in the Mediterranean are facing more general issues. Conservation assessments show that the majority of shark and ray species in the basin face extinction, despite the many legislations that are intended to protect them. In reality, persistent fishing pressure, insufficient monitoring and enforcement breaches have hindered efforts to preserve the species.
This potential extinction of great white sharks from the Mediterranean does not only represent the loss of an important and iconic marine species, but it would also raise concerns about broader ecological impacts. These apex predators are important to the marine ecosystems and the extinction of great white shark might have a broader influence on commercial fish populations and biodiversity overall by altering food webs and habitat dynamics.
