The great white shark is one of the ocean’s most formidable predators, feared by marine animals and humans alike.
It is also the world’s largest predatory fish, living mainly in subtropical waters but migrating to colder climes frequently in search of food.
Indeed, great whites can survive in cold water because they generate their own body heat and are fast, powerful and equipped with extremely sharp teeth to attack and catch prey.
Yet, despite boasting all these survival tools, the sharks are becoming increasingly endangered and may even be facing extinction in the Mediterranean Sea, according to researchers.
Great white situation
Virginia Tech University researcher Dr Francesco Ferretti and his team have focused intensively on the study of shark populations, finding that the number of many species, especially great whites, has declined in the Mediterranean over the last few decades.
And a big reason for this is illegal fishing.
“No other stretch of water is fished like the Mediterranean Sea,” Dr Ferretti says.
“The impact of industrial fishing has been intensifying … and it’s plausible that they [great whites] will go extinct in the near future.”
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Dr Ferretti’s research
Dr Ferretti’s team has been attempting to find and study sharks in an area between Sicily and North Africa, also known as the Strait of Sicily, which is considered to be a refuge for various threatened shark species.
Their goal was to lure a great white with bait and tag it with a tracker – something that has never been done in the Mediterranean before.
However, this attempt has largely failed, which Dr Ferretti describes as “disheartening” and a demonstration of “how degraded this ecosystem is”.
The team moreover discovered that a young shark had been caught and killed close to where the research was being carried out, but it was unclear whether the incident was merely a fishing accident or if the animal was actually targeted.
Dr Ferretti estimates that more than 40 great whites have been caught in and around that coastal area, adding: “This is a lot for a critically endangered population.”
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Illegal shark trade
The sale of great white sharks is highly lucrative and many people choose to ignore the complicated and often opaque rules regarding the protection of the sharks.
As a result, the European Union (EU) and 23 other nations have signed an agreement stipulating that 24 species of shark cannot be “retained on board, transhipped, landed, transferred, stored, sold or displayed or offered for sale”.
The agreement further states that the animals need to be released alive and unharmed wherever possible.
However, the agreement does not specify what should happen in the event of an accidental capture – and the enforcement of these rules varies from country to country.
Great white sharks, it must be said, are also not the only species being hunted to the point of extinction, and it is therefore crucial that governments implement more laws and regulations to shut down the illegal trade of endangered animals and end unsustainable fishing techniques.
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