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Political Developments

Political uncertainty in the disputed Western Sahara continues to deadlock efforts to protect the Côte des Phoques, despite Morocco’s politically-expedient decision to re-announce the establishment of a national park for the area during the recent UNEP/MAP conference in Arta, Greece.

On 10 November CNN/Reuters reported that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had held talks with Moroccan officials to gain final approval for a compromise plan to resolve the long-running conflict. UN sources claimed that verbal agreement had already been reached, but that Annan was seeking confirmation before proceeding with his initiative.

Annan had been scheduled to continue his North African tour with a visit to Algeria and meetings with Polisario Front leaders until the mounting crisis in Iraq intruded upon his mission. Other high-ranking U.N. officials were expected to take his place in the Polisario talks.

Morocco and the Algeria-based Polisario both claim the phosphate-rich Western Sahara, and fought a bitter guerrilla war until the late 1980s. Conflict over the 266,000 sq. km (103,000 sq. mile) territory is second only to Cyprus as the longest-running dispute involving the United Nations.

In what was interpreted as a move to break the deadlock between the opposing sides, Annan warned that U.N. peacekeeping troops stationed in the former Spanish colony since 1991 could not remain indefinitely, and he urged the rival parties to support his five-point plan to resolve the dispute.

A U.N.-organised referendum originally scheduled for January 1992 was to determine whether the Western Sahara should be incorporated into Morocco (the de facto administrators of most of the territory), or become independent as sought by the Polisario. However, the referendum has been repeatedly postponed due to disagreement over voter eligibility for the members of three tribal groupings. Annan’s peace initiative attempts to bridge these opposing views, and CNN/Reuters reports that Morocco has promised to respond to the plan by the end of November. The vote is currently scheduled for December 1999.

Mystery Surrounds ‘Captive’ Pup

Little or no information has been made publicly available on the status of a monk seal pup, currently undergoing rehabilitation in Mauritania/Western Sahara. The operation is being conducted by the Spanish Monk Seal Project, in association with the Norfolk Wildlife Hospital of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

Predictably, this dearth of information has fanned rumours regarding both the fate of the pup and even the intentions of those responsible for its health and welfare in captivity. According to some reports, the pup has been undergoing rehabilitation for nine months, though sources closer to the Spanish team insist that it is only six months since the animal was rescued. These same sources maintain that, although healthy, the pup has yet to learn to eat of its own accord. The animal will be returned to the wild, it is claimed, as soon as such action is warranted from a veterinary standpoint.

Efforts by The Monachus Guardian to clarify matters have met with little tangible response so far. Spanish scientists and the Norfolk Wildlife Hospital either declined to comment or did not reply to our e-mailed requests for information in the week prior to our publishing deadline.

An official at the RSPCA’s Norfolk Wildlife Hospital offered only the following comment: "All I can say is that the pup is alive and well. The rehabilitation is ongoing so there will be no real conclusions until after the seal is released and monitored post release. Until then everything is a bit premature…"

Mauritanian government experts, however, have criticised the project for constructing a temporary rehabilitation unit on a beach close to the Côte des Phoques caves – in an area they cannot access due to military and political tensions. It is also claimed that this action violates a previously-reached verbal agreement between the parties concerned.

Ironically, even a member of the Steering Committee for the Spanish Monk Seal Project, when contacted by The Monachus Guardian for additional information, was caught off guard. "What?" he responded, "I am not even aware that the Spanish team is rehabilitating a pup. The Steering Committee has expressed concern in the past about rehabilitation protocols for Mediterranean monk seals. So, I am astonished that we have not been consulted regarding the situation."

Indeed, several observers have highlighted the irony of the current situation, given the Spanish team’s well-aimed and strident demands for the adoption of internationally-agreed protocols governing the rescue and rehabilitation of orphaned, wounded and sick monk seals. Predictably, perhaps, there have been some references to pots calling kettles black…

Laying Down the Law

News on the grapevine suggests that Mauritania will soon lay down the law to foreign research and conservation teams, demanding either full compliance with agreed policies, and cooperation between all chosen parties, or – to put it bluntly – they may be asked to pack their bags and leave.

Observers will recall the strife and bloodletting that surrounded last year’s mass die-off of monk seals on the Côte de Phoques, an inter-organisational conflict that may have compromised rescue efforts. According to some observers, the Spanish and Dutch squabbles also served to cloud in situ activities that have never been particularly renowned for their transparency.

The reform policy underway in Mauritania appears to have been spurred by the healing of a rift between two government agencies, the Banc d’Arguin National Park and the Centre National de Recherches Océanographiques et des Pêches (CNROP) – a rift that may have been shamelessly exploited by certain parties in order to further their own agendas.

Now, the Banc d’Arguin and the CNROP are drawing up comprehensive guidelines and refining policy in order to coordinate monk seal activities efficiently. These are expected to be finalised early in the new year, at which time foreign experts will be invited to provide additional input in order to refine, develop and implement the action plan. Translocation, at least for now, appears to have been stricken from the agenda.

Despite some obvious misgivings in certain quarters, the Mauritanian authorities will be gratified that their promising new initiative is already being applauded by most of the monk seal conservation community.

Foça Patrol Boat Relaunched…

After three years of being marooned on dry land, the patrol boat Cevre has at last been reunited with the Foça Specially Protected Area (SPA).

Earlier this year, the Ministry of Environment transferred 4 billion Turkish Liras (approx. $14.000) to its Izmir Directorate to purchase a new Volvo marine diesel engine for the vessel. Of the additional TL 3 billion required to meet the cost, 500 million was allocated by the local council of Foça, and the remainder covered by the Foça Municipality.

According to the most recent information obtained from SAD-AFAG, Cevre was re-launched on 12 November, and is once again on duty in the Foça SPA.

Local conservationists and fishers will certainly have cause to celebrate. As indicated in the May issue of The Monachus Guardian, the Cevre has been out of action for three years, largely due to bureaucratic fumbling. During this time, according to traditional fishers, illegal fishing and tourism activities have steadily increased within the SPA.

The Cevre’s running costs – an issue of long-running dispute between various government agencies – are now expected to be covered by the Foça Municipality and the newly established Environment Protection Unit of the Local Governorship of Foça District.

Turkish Groups Merge

The Cilician Basin Project, formerly an independent group with WWF funding, has now merged with the Underwater Research Society’s Mediterranean Monk Seal Research Group (SAD-AFAG). SAD-AFAG operations are now composed of several regional groups, including the coordinating and government relations headquarters in Ankara, the Aegean Programme Office in Foça [administering the Central Aegean Project] and the Mediterranean Programme Office in Bozyazi in the Cilician Basin [Central Mediterranean Project]. Increased political influence, improved coordination of conservation activities, and a more efficient sharing of resources are cited as the primary benefits of the merger.

Monk Seal League Formed

In a further step towards the consolidation of monk seal conservation and research activities in Turkey, SAD-AFAG and the Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TÜDAV), led by Bayram Öztürk of Istanbul University, have formed the Monk Seal League. It is hoped that the League will act as an effective forum for inter-organisational cooperation and debate, furthering the cause of monk seal conservation in the political arena, while eliminating needless duplication of effort.

Monk Seal Bibliography

A bibliography of Turkish scientific literature relating to the Mediterranean monk seal has been prepared by the Monk Seal League. It is now available in electronic form in the Online Library of www.monachus.org as a PDF file. Anyone wishing to receive a printed version of the bibliography, plus the full text of a selection of these reports, should contact SAD-Izmir in Foça.

Reserve Areas Established in the Cilician Basin

Five coastal areas and an island along the Cilician Basin coast have been declared First Degree Natural Sites by the Turkish Ministry of Culture.

The decree was issued by the Ministry’s Council for the Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritage on 27 March this year. Totaling some 70 km., the sites are mainly composed of cliff-bound coasts, where seal populations have been identified by the Cilician Basin Project team of the Middle East Technical University - Institute of Marine Sciences (METU-IMS), which recently merged with SAD-AFAG.

Within the protected areas, development is now strictly prohibited, with management falling under the jurisdiction of the Culture ministry’s Adana directorate and local councils. Their designation as Natural Sites, however, provides no additional security for monk seals from other – possibly more urgent – threats, such as the hostility of fishers. But in a separate initiative last year, a Coast Guard patrol boat was deployed, covering an area where research had indicated that the greatest threats to the local seal population were occurring. The vessel is based in the town of Bozyazi, where the SAD-AFAG Mediterranean Project also maintains a small office. The Project has recorded a decline in illegal fishing activities in the area following deployment of the patrol boat.

Additional protection of the seals and their habitat may result from recent restrictions on industrial fisheries. According to an Aqua Products Circular issued in March 1998, the current trawling zone prohibition along this stretch of coastline – from Cape Anamur in the west, to the mouth of the River Ceyhans in the east – has been extended from 2 to 3 nautical miles. In the meantime, the project continues its efforts to close the entire area to trawling. It is hoped that such restrictions on intensive fishing methods will further help contain the hostility of local, traditional fishers towards the monk seal, who have seen their livelihoods decline as a result of industrial overfishing.

Earlier this year, in a gesture to improve relations, the Minister of Environment distributed 250 raincoats among artisanal fishers in the Cilician Basin.

Cilician Basin Fishers Call for More Patrol Boats

In the following open letter, local fishers appeal for an additional patrol boat to guard against illegal activities in the Cilician Basin:

"We are a group of artisanal fishermen from Bozyazi, on the eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. The waters in which we fish are inhabited by several species of endangered marine life, such as the Mediterranean monk seal; the Loggerhead Sea Turtle (Caretta caretta); and the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas). In the past we lived alongside these creatures in peace, even though their numbers used to vastly outnumber those which there are today. However, nowadays, due to a decrease in the size of fish stocks there is increasing conflict with these animals. Not only is the size of each catch smaller but we suffer more damage to fishing gear as hungry seals attempt to steal fish trapped in gill nets or on long lines. There are no subsidies available from the Turkish government to compensate for this damage. As profits have been falling since the mid-eighties, it has become increasingly difficult to repair our damaged gear. The result has been a decrease in the number of seals as they are killed.

We do not believe that short term measures such as compensation will help to save these species or our jobs in the long run. The answer to the problem lies with the trawlers that operate in this region. Not only do they remove large amounts of fish and the profits to far off cities, but due to the topography of the region can only fish, illegally, close to the coast. This destroys the juvenile nurseries, which are the key to restocking the fish populations. All our attempts to control the illegal fishing operation occurring in our waters have failed so far. This is because the coast guard consists of one boat, which is insufficient to patrol this huge region (150 n. miles).

To reverse this situation and protect our endangered species and ecosystem, our plan is to acquire a powerful control boat. This would be manned by local government and the municipality and used to patrol the region. We also want to set up a radio station so this boat can be in contact with all local fishing boats in the region. The locals can then report illegal activities to the control boat making it difficult for the illegal fishing activity to continue."

This letter was distributed on behalf of the fishers by the SAD-AFAG Cilician Basin Project. Any organisation or individual wishing to help in efforts to deploy another patrol boat in the area, please contact: Ali Cemal Gücü.

For more information on conservation efforts in the Cilician Basin, turn to In Focus: New Discoveries in Cilicia.

WWF-Belgium Funds Cilician Basin & Foça Projects

A 1997 monk seal fund-raising campaign netted $16,000 in donations from members of WWF-Belgium. The beneficiary, the Cilician Basin Project, invested the funds in equipment, purchasing a pick-up truck and a notebook computer. Now an additional $40,000 will be donated as a result of the WWF campaign, the funds being channelled to both the Cilician Basin project and the Central Aegean project in Foça. In Foça, the donations will be devoted to refitting the research vessel Merhaba, a 7.6-metre traditional Aegean caique, including the purchase of a new engine, VHF radio and GPS satellite positioning system. In addition, camera-trap equipment will be purchased and deployed in both the Central Aegean and Cilician Basin regions to monitor cave-usage by monk seals.

Seal-Info Update

SAD-AFAG’s Seal-Info Project [The Monachus Guardian Vol. 1 No. 1] has now drawn to a close. Sponsored by WWF’s Across the Waters programme, the campaign’s primary objective was to help local decision makers in Turkey’s coastal states, towns and cities become better acquainted with the monk seal and its conservation. To further these aims, 1000 booklets were designed and printed for distribution to mayors, local councillors, and provincial ministry of Environment and Agriculture directorates.

Conservation Guidelines

Also on the political lobbying front, over a hundred copies of the multilingual edition of the Conservation Guidelines have been distributed by SAD-AFAG among decision makers in Ankara and key coastal towns and cities in Turkey. Several hundred additional copies are to be distributed among newly-appointed officials following the April 1999 elections.

Re-published earlier this year in English, French, Greek, Spanish and Turkish, the Conservation Guidelines were compiled in response to controversy over captive breeding and translocation initiatives, pursued without adequate consultation or review by the wider scientific and conservation community. Based on conference resolutions and action plans, the Guidelines advocate a sequential approach to the conservation of the species in which the precautionary principle is rigorously applied. To date, 78 organisations and individuals have endorsed the document.

Monk Seal Adoption Launched

SAD-AFAG and the WWF associate organisation in Turkey, the Society for the Protection of Nature (DHKD), launched a public awareness and fundraising campaign on the 29th of August with the ‘adoption’ of a monk seal by the Turkish Minister of Environment, Ms Imren Aykut.

Eighteen more seals have been ‘adopted’ to date and the ‘foster families’ are given regular updates on the progress of the two field projects in the Aegean and Mediterranean through the bulletin ‘Monk Seal, our Water Child’.

Funds raised through the adoption project will support these conservation efforts, while advertising and media coverage is helping to raise public awareness in Turkey on the critical status of Monachus monachus.

The campaign, supported by WWF’s Across the Waters programme, offers three categories of adoption, ranging from ‘mother and father’ at $500–$1000, ‘aunt and uncle’ at $100–$500, to ‘cousins’ at $5–$100. Depending on the adoption category, donors receive a certificate, T-shirt, cap, badge, poster and a monk seal toy. All categories receive four news bulletins per year, giving progress reports on the Mediterranean and Central Aegean projects.

Start-up costs, report SAD/AFAG, were quickly covered due to an enthusiastic response to the campaign.

For more information please contact Ayse Oruc, Marine Officer, DHKD, Istanbul, or Ozan Veryeri, SAD-AFAG, Ankara.

New Seals Recorded

Cilician Basin researchers registered the birth of a monk seal pup in August 1998 to a previously unrecorded female. A male seal, previously unknown to the team, was also recorded during same period. Meanwhile, in Foça, researchers recently observed a juvenile seal, assumed to have been born in autumn 1997 within the boundaries of the SPA.

Dockyard Construction Plan Defeated

Plans for the construction of an industrial dockyard and harbour on the Gediz Delta, south of the Foça SPA, have been defeated as a result of protests led by Turkish NGOs, including SAD-AFAG and DHKD.

At the forefront of the development was the Turkish corporation Golden Ship Inc., which characterised its plans as a $350 million investment. The company had previously obtained tentative approval for the construction from the ministries of Development and Transport, but ran into opposition while attempting to file an Environmental Impact Assessment with the Ministry of Environment.

The Gediz Delta is regarded as playing a vital ecological role, serving as both a nesting site for endangered bird species – such as the Dalmatian Pelican (Pelecanus crispus) – and as a fish nursery ground. The fate of the delta was therefore regarded with particular concern for artisanal fishers in the area, whose livelihoods are inextricably intertwined with efforts save local monk seal populations. Protests over the scheme, which were actively supported by the Municipality of Foça, eventually prompted the Ministry of Environment to declare the area a RAMSAR site in April this year.

Private Lives under Investigation

So far, one of the most mysterious aspects of the Mediterranean monk seal’s life has been its in-cave behavior. In a joint research project in October 1997, SAD-AFAG and Gruppo Foca Monaca of Italy installed a video camera, infra-red light source and microphone in a seal cave on Orak Island in the Foça SPA. Live ‘feeds’ to a TV monitor in a tent about 100 meters away were monitored 24 hours a day for 25 days. Two individual seals were observed using the cave on three different occasions. Activities and vocalizations of the animals were recorded on VHS tapes. Costs of the project were bourne by Panda Film, with some technical equipment being donated by the Italian electricity company ENEL.

Now, as a second stage to the project, SAD-AFAG is planning to equip a cave actively used by seals in the central Mediterranean coasts of Turkey with a permanent video system. Rather than relying on cables, however, this time image and sound data will be broadcast by a transmitter system and received at a base station. It is hoped that this system will enable researchers to continuously monitor the local seal population and gather invaluable behavioral information without disturbing the animals. Funding for the project is being provided by WWF Belgium.