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Vol. 8 (2): December 2005 |
Recent Sightings of the Monk Seal in Croatian areas of the AdriaticMartina Duras Gomercic, Tomislav Gomercic, Duro Huber and Hrvoje GomercicFaculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia
The monk seal male caught in 1777 off the island of Cres found its way to Johann Hermann. His detailed observations of this specimen, published in 1779, were considered the first modern scientific description of this species. Before any serious scientific research could be undertaken, the monk seal, as well as the common dolphin, had disappeared from the Adriatic Sea. The last confirmed habitat of two specimens of monk seal was near the island of Pag in 1992. In the summer of 1993 the monk seal was seen near the island of Palagruza for a short period of time. In the past year or so, a large number of monk seal sightings have been noted in the Croatian part of the Adriatic. The locations of these sightings are indicated on the accompanying map (Fig. 1), while further data on each observation are provided under the corresponding number in the table below. All the reports have one common characteristic: only one specimen was observed. The animal was normally observed by only one individual but there were also sightings by two, three, four people and sometimes even larger groups.
The specimen was most frequently observed by those familiar with the sea: fishermen and divers. Taking into consideration all these factors, we conclude that at least one monk seal has been wandering across the Adriatic over the past year. Although it is not possible to be 100 percent certain that all the sightings are of Monachus monachus (conceivably, another species of true seal that has escaped captivity might be involved), we believe that the most recent sightings could well be of a Mediterranean monk seal possibly a solitary visitor from the nearest population in the central Ionian Sea which wandered into the Croatian part of the Adriatic but has yet to settle in one area.
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![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Copyright © 2005 Martina Duras Gomercic, Tomislav Gomercic, Duro Huber, Hrvoje Gomercic, The Monachus Guardian. All Rights Reserved |