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‘The Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus is one of three related species of warm water seals... It is found in declining numbers over its primeval range in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea and the Atlantic coast of NW Africa. It is confined to refuges in remote cliffbound coasts and islets. It is highly sensitive to human disturbance which is thought to result in abortions and desertation of young. Fewer than 500 Mediterranea monk seals survive, mainly in Greek and Turkish waters.’ ~ IUCN Bulletin. 1984. Ten to the Dozen but Short Measure for Protected Areas. Vol. 15:No. 10-12. pp. 109-110.
Because of its shyness and its habitat, the Mediterranean monk seal is an animal that is rarely seen, even by people who live in its proximity. I came to realize how lucky an encounter with this elusive animal can be, only while studying Monachus monachus during the summer of 1996. The study, kindly supported by the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal (MOm), was carried out in the National Park of Alonnisos and the Northern Sporades in Greece, and forms part of the thesis for my biology degree at the Free University of Berlin.
During the preparation of this work I discovered that it is not only difficult to find this ‘phantom’ of the Mediterranean in the wild, but also in scientific literature. Most articles concerning Monachus monachus are either published in conference proceedings, which are printed in limited numbers, or in scientific journals with a very local distribution. This situation, combined with the fact that these articles are written in many different languages (English, French, Greek, Spanish, Turkish etc.), makes it practically impossible for ‘outsiders’ to get acquainted with the monk seal and the conservation efforts being implemented to save this endangered species.
This situation is quite astonishing, since education of the public is one of the primary measures aimed at preventing the extinction of Monachus monachus, recommended by all the monk seal conferences since Rhodes in 1978.
At this point I would like to congratulate the editors of The Monachus Guardian for their good work in issue No. 1, and would like to encourage them to urge monk seal scientists to publish their articles (or at least an abstract of them in English) also in the Guardian. In this way they would not only gain, through the Internet, a wider readership, but also spare us time-consuming visits to libraries and inevitable delays when ordering papers.
Yours faithfully,
Alexandros Karamanlidis, Free University of Berlin
www.monachus.org and The Monachus Guardian are gradually evolving, and we invite members of the monk seal conservation community to submit their papers and reports on a regular basis for publication in the Library and/or Monachus Science sections. This will enable rapid electronic access worldwide by interested readers. This month we have added five new publications (from Canada, Croatia, Madeira and Turkey) to these sections and, as noted elsewhere, we hope to publish the entire proceedings of the UNEP/MAP Arta conference (with accompanying scientific reports) in the near future.
I am a nuclear campaigner with Greenpeace International working against the plan by Turkey to build a nuclear power station at Akkuyu Bay in Turkey. One of the issues which has been raised by some Turkish conservation groups is the effect the building of this plant may have on nearby populations of monk seals. In particular, the island just off Akkuyu Bay, Parmak Island, is home to a monk seal and was recently declared a protected habitat.
It seems likely that the building of a nuclear power station at Akkuyu would be a danger to the monk seals. There would be increased sea traffic, increased human activity, and the inevitable pollution from both the construction and operation of the plant. All nuclear power stations discharge liquid radioactive waste as part of their routine operation.
The announcement of who has won the bid to build the nuclear power station is expected any day now. If announced, the Turkish Government is expected to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Greenpeace is asking organisations who work on marine mammals, and particularly the monk seal, to write to the Turkish Government and urge them to conduct an EIS which comprehensively examines the potential impact of the proposed nuclear power plant on the surrounding monk seal populations. The Prime Minister’s address is:
Prime Minister of Turkey
Basbakan
Ankara, TurkeyFax ++ 90 312 417 0476
Ben Pearson, Greenpeace International, Amsterdam
For more information on this issue, contact Ben Pearson in Amsterdam on Tel. ++ 31 20 5249563, or consult the Greenpeace International webpage: www.greenpeace.org
I am studying the possible influence of tidal actions on monk seal activity and behaviour. However, after searching various bibliographies, I have found only a few references to this subject. If anyone has any information on this issue, or has ever come across a paper on the subject, could they please contact me at the following address?
Rosa Pires, Parque Natural da Madeira, Quinta do Bom Sucesso, Caminho do Meio, 9000 Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. E-mail: np24ue@mail.telepac.pt
After searching several web sites for information on Caribbean Monk Seals, I came across www.monachus.org. Is the Caribbean Monk Seal much like the Mediterranean Monk Seal? I understand the Caribbean variety is considered extinct, but what are the odds that it is not extinct? Have there been sightings? The reason I ask is that some six to seven years ago I was on a sailboat off the coast of Stuart, Florida. While on board I looked over the side to see an animal I could not identify. At first I thought it was a baby manatee – until some years later when I saw one at an aquarium. I then remembered the Caribbean monk seal and saw the picture on your web site. If I recall correctly, the animal I saw looked much like what is pictured. The animal was less than four feet long with the same face. Could this be a Caribbean Monk Seal? Marko Sillanpaa, USA.
David Lavigne, of the International Marine Mammal Association (IMMA Inc.), replies:
Yes, from what we know, the Caribbean monk seal was a close relative of the Mediterranean monk seal.
There have been a number of reported seal sightings in the Caribbean region since the last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal in the early 1950s. In the 1980s Burney LeBoeuf and colleagues went looking, found nothing, and declared the Caribbean monk seal extinct (LeBoeuf et al. 1986). I am aware of at least two subsequent expeditions that also failed to find any evidence that the Caribbean monk seal survives. The most recent edition of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources’ Red List of Endangered and Threatened Animals declared it ‘extinct’ (IUCN 1996).
More recently, interviews with fishers in northern Haiti and Jamaica have kept alive the hope that the Caribbean monk seal survives (Boyd and Stanfield 1998). But given the heavy boat traffic throughout the Caribbean, and the lack of any confirmed sightings in more than 40 years, it seems unlikely that the species survives.
Rather, it seems more likely that some of the sightings, including quite possibly yours, were of wayward young hooded seals, Cystophora cristata, as noted recently by Greg Early from the New England aquarium [See International News, Has Anyone Seen a Caribbean Monk Seal?– Ed.]. Others may have been other North Atlantic seals beyond their normal range, or escapees (including sea lions) from captive facilities.
Or, yes, they could have been manatees as you suggest. There is a long history of confusion between manatees (and, possibly, dugongs) and monk seals in the wild (they sometimes look quite similar when they float on the surface) and both, interestingly, gave rise to mermaid legends.
Sources:Boyd, I.L. and M.P. Stanfield. 1998. Circumstantial evidence for the presence of monk seals in the West Indes. Oryx 32(4), 310-316.
IUCN. 1996. 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
LeBoeuf, B.J., K.W. Kenyon, and B. Villa-Ramirez. 1986. The Caribbean monk seal is extinct. Marine Mammal Science 2, 70-72.
Monk Seals – How do they differ anatomically?
How are monk seals anatomically different from other seals, which has led them to a difference in classification? I have been doing some research on them with a professor of mine and we cannot find this out with the resources we have. I’d appreciate any insight on this topic. Maegan, Coastal Carolina University Student, USA.
David Lavigne, of the International Marine Mammal Association (IMMA Inc.), replies:
Monk seals (genus Monachus) have long been recognized as being somewhat different from other seals on the basis of a variety of traits, and not just on anatomical differences. Your question is difficult to answer precisely because the three species of modern monk seals have only rarely been compared in individual studies (King 1956 is an exception). The retention of primitive features in the skull (particularly in the Hawaiian monk seal, M. schauinslandi) is one anatomical difference that tends to separate Monachus as a distinct group. Monachine seals are also characterized by having a relatively straight and thick ilium (Ray 1976).
Monk seals, again like other monachine seals, are also relatively large (compared with phocine seals), with females tending to be the larger sex; they have 4 mammary glands (King 1983), produce pups with black lanugo (foetal hair) (McLaren 1975, Ling 1978), and have 2n = 34 chromosomes (Árnason 1974). Monk seals also have smooth, as opposed to beaded, vibrissae (King 1983); and are distinguished from other seals in immunological studies of serum transferrins (Sarich 1975, 1976). Monk seals are also the only modern pinnipeds that survive in warm, relatively unproductive seas (Davies 1958).
For additional information and readings, see Lavigne (1998), ‘Historical biogeography and phylogenetic relationships among modern monk seals, Monachus spp.’ in Monachus Science.
Literature citedÁrnason, U. 1974 Comparative chromosome studies in Pinnipedia. Hereditas 76: 179-226.
Davies, J.L. 1958. Pleistocene geography and the distribution of northern pinnipeds. Ecology, 39:97-113.
King, J.E. 1956. The monk seals (genus Monachus). Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 3(5): 201-256.
King, J.E. 1983. Seals of the World. British Museum: Natural History, London.
Ling, J.K. 1978. Pelage characteristics and systematic relationships in the Pinnipedia. Mammalia 42: 305-313.
McLaren, I.A. 1975. A speculative view of pinniped evolution. Rapports et Proces-verbaux des Reunions 169: 43-48.
Ray, C.E. 1976. Geography of phocid evolution. Systematic Zoology 25: 391-406.
Sarich, V.M. 1975. Pinniped systematics: immunological comparisons of their albumens and transferrins. American Zoologist 15(3): 826.
Sarich, V.M. 1976. Transferrin. Transactions of the Zoological Society of London 33: 165-171.
Congratulations on the launch of www.monachus.org, an excellent initiative! I hope that it generates the kind of interest which will better help the prospects of the monk seals. Peter Haddow, Seal Conservation Society, U.K.
Thank you very much for your excellent web site. Stefan Avramov, Bulgarian Society for the Protection of Birds.
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