for National Geographic News The great white shark is among 30
species of sharks and rays fast swimming toward oblivion in the
Mediterranean Sea, a new report warns. The newly published World
Conservation Union (IUCN) report identifies the waters between
Europe and Africa as having the highest percentage of threatened
sharks and rays in the world. Some 42 percent of Mediterranean
species are at risk, says the IUCN Red List assessment,
performed by the conservation body's Shark Specialist Group. The
group blames the plummeting populations on habitat degradation,
sport angling, human disturbance, and overfishing—including fish
caught as unintended bycatch. (Related: 8 Million Sharks Killed
Accidentally off Africa Yearly [April 17, 2007].) "Our analyses
reveal the Mediterranean Sea as one of the world's most
dangerous places on Earth for sharks and rays," Claudine Gibson,
IUCN Shark Specialist Group program officer and co-author of the
report, said in a statement. "Bottom-dwelling species appear to
be at greates