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    Millions of people live along the Mediterranean Sea and millions more flock to its shores every year to enjoy the sandy beaches and cool waters. This human activity pushes a local resident, the Monk seal, closer to extinction.At night, the Monk Seal is busy feeding in the shallow coastal waters, hunting lobsters, eels, octopus and reef fish. During the day - the seals rest from their nocturnal activities and sleep on the beach, making them easy prey for hunters. Once the animal was common sight from the Black and Adriatic Seas to the Mediterranean, Atlantic and Caribbearn. They were found in places as far apart as Senegal and the Hawaiian Islands. It also enjoyed great recognition historically. In ancient Greece, the gods Poseidon and Apollo protected the Monk Seal because of its great love for the sea and sun. Aristotle wrote of the Monk Seal in the 4th century and Christopher Columbus reported killing eight 'sea wolves' in his voyage through the Caribbean in 1494. Their fossils date back 15 million years. But none of this saved the Monk Seal. Hunted for food and pelts, their numbers were severely depleted in the 1800s. Fishermen considered them a nuisance and killed the seals simply so they would not feed on fish. While hunting has wiped out the majority of the seal colonies, the bigger threat today is the presence of humans in Monk Seal feeding and breeding grounds. Human activity on beaches and seas, forces the seal to find other areas to birth, such as caves and grottos. In 1978, the largest known colony at the time, made up of about 60 animals, was destroyed when the cave they inhabited collapsed. As the Monk Seal population declines, a vicious cycle is set in motion: a shortage of females provokes overly aggressive mating behaviour in males, who mob the females, often killing them in the process. Surviving females have no isolated space to birth and rear their young during the critical the first six weeks of life. The pups are pushed into the ocean prematurely, before they have the skills to outswim sharks and other predators. Other problems plague the Monk Seal. Very sensitive to disturbance, they avoid human contact as much as possible. Divers and motorized boats can traumatize the animal so much that females are known to abort their pregnancies when surprised. Of the three species, there are 1,300 Hawaiian Monk Seals left; Mediterranean Monk Seals number 500 in the wild; and the Caribbean Monk Seal was declared extinct in 1922. Conservation efforts focus on preserving safe areas for breeding. Since the animals do not survive well in captivity and breeding programmes have proved unsuccessful, the solution is to maintain protected beaches, keeping them clear of pollution, fishing boats and humans. Some of the biggest conservation efforts are taking place in the Hawaiian Islands. In November 2000, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) stopped lobster fishing around the northwestern Hawaiian Islands and in January 2001, 130 square miles (339,260 square kilometres) of ocean habitat - coral reefs, beaches and water - were set aside to preserve the area for seals. In the Mediterranean a ban on all fishing - except for traditional, non-motorized activities by local communities - has been iplemented along certain coastlines.
LEARN MORE how the UN works with its partners around the world to save endangered species. Go to the links at the side of the page. Photo credit: UN |
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