Tourism continues to hound Mediterranean monk seals Statistics released by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) in Madrid suggest that mass tourism will continue to harass and deprive the Mediterranean monk seal of habitat — while paying only lip service to the plight of Europe’s most endangered marine mammal. According to the WTO’s champagne-popping report, Tourism Highlights 2000, international tourism grew by 3.2% last year, generating $455 billion. Countries in the western Mediterranean fared particularly well, with international arrivals to Spain and Morocco growing by 9% and 22% respectively. In the eastern Mediterranean, tourism in Greece grew by an impressive 5%. Greece attracted almost 11.5 million tourists (up from 10 million in 1997), while Turkey’s influx fell from 9 million in 1997 to 6.8 million in 1999, largely due to earthquake scares. The mass tourism industry has been implicated in the extinction of Monachus monachus in several geographic regions, including Spain, France, Corsica, Italy, Sardinia and Croatia. It continues to be a clear and present danger to the survival of the species in Cyprus, Greece and Turkey. Monk Seal habitat on Sardinia While the champagne may be flowing at WTO headquarters over the current tourist boom, there is also a growing sense of indignation that grassroots conservation organizations, understaffed and under-funded, are actually subsidising this powerful, money-spinning industry by setting up protected areas, guarding monk seal refuges and distributing information to the public. Although international conferences and intergovernmental institutions such as the United Nations have consistently urged the tourism industry to meet its obligations towards the Mediterranean monk seal, it has so far conspicuously failed to do so. Despite projecting a green image and scrupulous environmental credentials, the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) — the industry’s business leaders forum — has declined to comment on the issue, despite several requests. Meanwhile, the World Tourism Organisation has released a Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, which implicitly recognises the industry’s impact on biodiversity. The Code states: "Tourism infrastructure should be designed and tourism activities programmed in such a way as to protect the natural heritage composed of ecosystems and biodiversity and to preserve endangered species of wildlife…" To put the financial issue into some perspective, Greece saw its receipts from international tourist arrivals swell to $5.4 billion last year, while Turkey generated $5 billion. These figures, of course, do not touch upon profits generated by international corporations, nor on domestic receipts. Regardless, it is perhaps a measure of the industry’s attitude towards the species that it is so relentlessly driving into extinction, that funds cannot be found for guards and boats to patrol monk seal refuges. As reflected in this issue’s Letters to the Editor, increasing numbers of readers are voicing their indignation over this state of affairs. The Monachus Guardian will continue to explore tourism’s threat to the Mediterranean monk seal in future issues. In the meantime, for further information and in-depth analysis, please turn to: Aga Khan, Sadruddin. 1999. Guest Editorial: A little imagination. Why the billion dollar mass tourism industry should do something to save the Mediterranean monk seal. The Monachus Guardian 2(2) November 1999. Johnson, William M. & David M. Lavigne. 1999. Mass tourism and the Mediterranean monk seal. The role of mass tourism in the decline and possible future extinction of Europe's most endangered marine mammal, Monachus monachus. Monachus Science. The Monachus Guardian 2(2) November 1999. Johnson, William M. 1998. Monk seal myths in Sardinia. The Monachus Guardian 1(1): May 1998. Savas, Yalcin. 1999. The Monachus Guardian 2(2): November 1999. How tourism has ruined the coastal habitats of the monk seal on the Bodrum Peninsula, Turkey. Tip: For other tourism-related articles and news items, try The Monachus Guardian’s automated Search function. Hot off the presses Highlighting mass tourism’s clear and present danger to the Mediterranean monk seal, Volume 2 of The Monachus Guardian is now hot off the presses. The hard copy version, intended primarily for decision makers, libraries and those unable to access the Internet, incorporates the May and November 1999 issues. The publication is made possible by the generous financial support of the Humane Society of Canada and the Ark Angel Foundation. Those wishing to be added to the mailing list should write to IMMA Inc. or contact the Librarian: librarian@monachus.org. Blushes all Round In January 2000, Monachus.org received an Internet Guide Award from Britannica.com, the Internet branch of Britain’s prestigious Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica editors cited the Monachus.org site as "one of the best on the Internet when reviewed for quality, accuracy of content, presentation and usability." Congratulations to our many contributors who have made this possible. Readership Soars Meanwhile, Monachus Guardian readership online has reached over 1000 people a week, with a peak of 1500 observed during the November publication period. One Last Chance In a January 2000 press release issued in Brussels, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) named the Mediterranean monk seal as among 10 species most in danger of extinction within Europe. The monk seal was joined by the Iberian lynx, the brown bear, the harbour porpoise, the loggerhead turtle, the freshwater mussel, the Atlantic salmon, the marsh fritillary butterfly, the lady's slipper orchid and the Corncrake. In issuing the press release, the WWF was seeking to pressure EU member states into more effective enforcement of the languishing EU Habitats Directive. "Every endangered species in Europe is supposed to be protected under an excellent European nature conservation law agreed in 1992," Tony Long, Director of WWF's European Policy Office was quoted as saying. "But the nations of the European Union have broken every deadline for putting the law, the Habitats Directive, into practice." The full text of the WWF press release is available in the Monachus Library: WWF. 2000. Last chance for Europe's endangered species. Few monk seals in Cork Contrary to expectations, the 14th annual conference of the European Cetacean Society (ECS), which convened in Cork, Ireland in early April, saw only one paper on Mediterranean monk seals. Following a rather more substantial showing a year earlier in Valencia, where monk seals were discussed as part of a workshop on seal movements, it was hoped that Monachus might become a regular fixture in ECS proceedings. This time, however, monk seals were represented only by Rosa Pires and Henrique Costa Neves in the Critical Habitat session, with a report on sightings on open beaches in the Desertas Islands reserve of Madeira (see Recent Publications). Searching? Click here A powerful new search engine built by Excite has been added to Monachus.org, giving an extra helping hand to students and researchers. Choosing Local Search will find keywords in documents throughout Monachus.org, while Internet Search will take advantage of Excite’s capabilities throughout the World Wide Web. Entering keywords into the Search dialogue box will now generate a far more comprehensive list of articles, reports and news items than previously. Results are hotlinked, allowing instantaneous access, and are prioritised according to relevance. Advanced, customised searches are also provided for. Check out Help on searching for tips. Be careful what you wish for The idea of launching a dedicated monk seal discussion forum has been raised in these pages before, and has been regarded as everything from a stroke of genius (furthering international information exchange) to a white elephant (a techno gimmick that everyone is too busy to use). While IMMA Inc. cannot claim to have launched an Internet forum exclusively for Monachus, it has recently started-up Coda @ Marinemammal.net. As the name implies, this moderated discussion forum focuses on all matters relating to marine mammal science and conservation — including issues concerning monk seals. If you have a question to ask, a statement or observation to make, check out www.marinemammal.net. The numbers game Thousands of islands, inaccessible coastlines, and a species that shies away from human contact have all conspired to make population estimates for the Mediterranean monk seal an extraordinarily inexact science. Partly because of their own tendency to err on the side of caution, historically, biologists have consistently underestimated the numbers of monk seals populating the Mediterranean. Conversely, errors can also creep into population estimates when biologists rely on old data. On more occasions than the authors would probably care to remember, this has resulted in monk seal colonies being placed in areas where they have been extinct for many years. The only thing that can be said with any degree of certainty is that the Mediterranean monk seal remains critically endangered, and that its range has shrunk dramatically over the last 50 years. At the risk of continuing the tradition of pulling numbers out of a hat, we present the following updated population estimates, based on various sources. It should be remembered that question marks hang over monk seal abundance in most of these regions and countries. As such, these figures should be treated with caution. Mediterranean monk seal population estimates area regional subtotal area total Black Sea   0 – 5 Bulgaria 0   Georgia 0   Romania 0   Russia 0   Turkey 0 – 5    Ukraine 0   Eastern Mediterranean   260 – 320 Albania 0   Croatia 0 – 5   Cyprus 5   Egypt 0   Greece 200 – 250   Israel 0   Lebanon 0   Libya 5 – 10   Slovenia 0   Syria 0   Turkey 50   Yugoslavia 0   Western Mediterranean   15 – 30 Algeria 10 – 20   France & Corsica 0   Italy & Sardinia 0   Malta 0   Morocco 5 – 10   Spain 0   Tunisia 0   Atlantic   104 – 175 Azores (Portugal) 0   Canary Islands (Spain) 0   Cape Verde Islands 0   Gambia 4   Madeira (Portugal) 21   Mauritania 2   Morocco 0   Senegal 0   western Sahara 77 – 148*   TOTAL   379 – 530 * Mean estimate: 103 (95% CI: 77 - 148) (Forcada, Hammond & Aguilar 1999). Sources Aguilar, A. 1998. Current status of Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) populations. Meeting of experts on the implementation of the action plans for marine mammals (monk seal and cetaceans) adopted within MAP. Arta, Greece, 29-31 October 1998. UNEP, Athens: 1-34. Forcada, J., Hammond, P.S. and Aguilar, A. 1999. Status of the Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus in the western Sahara and the implications of a mass mortality event. Marine Ecology Progress Series 188: 249-261. González, L. M. 1999. Update on the situation of the Mediterranean monk seal (English translation). In: Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. Scientific Council of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. 9th Meeting, Cape Town, 4-6 November 1999: 1-16 + 6 maps. Johnson, W. M. (ed). The Monachus Guardian. www.monachus-guardian.org. Sayings of 3000 Years Due to space limitations in the hardcopy version of The Monachus Guardian, our previously-announced article, reproducing the most memorable quotations on Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals, has been postponed until our Millennium issue in November. We thank all those contributors who have submitted their favourite lines from the past, and apologise for any inconvenience. On the plus side, our postponement allows more time for additional contributions. Nominations, from classical antiquity to the present day, may cover any subject relating to monk seals, their study or conservation. Quotations may be profound or insightful, sad, amusing or even absurd. Please contact the editor@monachus.org. Unless otherwise stipulated, the names of contributors will be credited at the end of the article.