Vol. 11 (2): November 2008

Sighting and Response

Antoni Font, Joan Mayol, Manu Sanfelix and Carlota Viada

Servei d’Espècies Protegides, Conselleria de Medi Ambient, Govern de les illes Balears

When a Mediterranean monk seal decided to turn up unexpectedly at Mallorca this summer, following the species’ fifty-year absence from the Balearic Islands, alarm bells rang and people swung into action. This is a record of events as they occurred…

On 4 May 2008, a group of persons aboard a motor yacht repeatedly saw a seal swimming calmly in a quiet little cove on the north coast of Mallorca, some 10 km NW of the island of sa Dragonera. The animal appeared 10m from the boat and they were able to see it clearly on the surface; it dived and surfaced four or five times. A photograph was taken with a pocket camera, but unfortunately only when the animal was already too far away; in it, one can just barely see a small head in the water. Their sightings lasted about 20 minutes. They later reported the encounter to the personnel of the Natural Park of sa Dragonera, who passed on the news to the Service of Endangered Species of the Balearic Islands Government. Some days later, the seal was seen twice in the close vicinity of the Natural Park of sa Dragonera.

On 14 July 2008 Álvaro Garí, an experienced diving instructor, photographed a monk seal during an underwater encounter in a cave situated some 18 km SE of Sa Dragonera, where he sometimes leads pleasure-diving groups. This is how he describes the encounter:

“I moored my boat at one of the buoys of the El Toro Marine reserve, about 20m away from the coast. In total, with my group and a group from another company, we were about 25 divers. One of the divers told me that he had seen a big white thing floating inside the little cave beside the mooring buoy: he believed it was a dead cetacean, and I headed to the place to check. 

The cave is about 20m wide and 5m deep, penetrating 10m into the cliff, so there is some natural light inside. I directed my dive light at the white object, and guessed it was a big animal in a sleep-like position with its nostrils out of the water, in a small air bubble in the roof of the cave.

When I approached, the animal turned slowly towards me and waited for some seconds, looking at me. It was clearly some species of seal. It seemed to me enormous in such a confined space. After visiting the cave some days after, I realize now that its real size is likely to be smaller, around 2.5m. Then it started to move inside the cave, slowly, without losing visual contact with me, finally leaving the cave without any sign of stress. The encounter lasted some eight minutes and it was one of the most intense experiences I have ever had as a diver.”

Luckily, Álvaro carried a small compact camera (Sony DSC-T100) with a basic underwater housing. After overcoming the initial surprise, he obtained 10 photos of the animal. Though light conditions inside the cave, coupled with the camera’s autofocus and flash limitations, were always unlikely to produce high-quality images, copies of the photographs produced were sent to a group of international experts, who determined without any doubt that the animal was a Mediterranean monk seal.

Some speculated that it was probably an adult female.

Suddenly, we were facing the first confirmed sighting of a monk seal in the Balearics since 1958.

Though there had been a series of sporadic sightings during the intervening years, some of them very detailed, none were ever backed up with photographic evidence. That lack of images made it impossible to either verify or discard the observations.

Despite the limited technical quality, Alvaro’s photos also held a deep evocative quality: that of a fleeting encounter, and the monk seal’s long-awaited return after a 50-year absence. Coming only half a year after the publication of ‘The monk seal, a reversible absence’, the coincidence now almost seemed like a premonition [PDF  6.1MB].

Decision making after the encounter

Following his encounter, Álvaro alerted the marine reserve personnel, who duly transmitted the news to the General Direction of Fisheries and the Service of Protected Species in the Environment Ministry of the Balearic Islands Government. An urgent decision-making meeting was convened as soon as the animal had been confirmed as a monk seal. It was decided to launch several initiatives on three fronts: to inform the population (especially users of the sea); to seek new information on the presence and behaviour of the animal; and finally, to open a collaboration with the professional fishermen to diminish the risk of an accident, and to be able to take whatever decisions were deemed necessary as a result.

Informing the citizenship

A multilingual leaflet was produced (in Catalan, Spanish, English and German) informing readers about the return of the seal monk to our coasts, explaining how to behave in case of a sighting, and letting them know that a hotline was available by dialling the standard emergencies number 112.

Copies were distributed to various official bodies in coastal communities: town halls, marinas, port police, professional and recreational associations of relevance to the marine environment. The presence of the monk seal made headlines in various newspapers, magazines, radio and television.

Reinforcing the impact of the leaflets, a team of two persons (the 'Unit Vell Marí') was hired to undertake a range of tasks by boat, such as:

• Personal interviews with diverse users of the sea, including professional and recreational fishermen, speargun fishermen, sailors, tourists and maritime authorities...
• Informative talks to groups linked to the sea (sailing schools, marina workers...)
• Systematic observation and photography of positive (caves, areas suitable for haul-out, resting…) or negative (waste, disturbance of the coast ...) features in the habitat.
• Observation from vantage points with good visibility if the weather conditions were appropriate.
• Collation of all information within a database, including the GPS positioning of all team movements (tracks) and events (waypoints), including caves, observations, photographs, interviews, and relevant historical events.

Google Earth can be used to show the tracks and waypoints registered with a GPS. This screenshot
shows several visits to port d’Andratx. Waypoints are classified in folders.

Twenty effective working days allowed some 3,000 people to be informed through 881 personal interviews, involving sailing more than 800 km. By nationality, 49% were Spanish (Balearic Islands 40%, Catalonia 2%, other parts of the state 7%). The remaining 51% were foreigners, with a prevalence of British (20%), Germans (15%) and French (8%). The remainder were mostly Dutch, Italian, Belgian, Swedish, Swiss and Portuguese.

The team recorded the coordinates of 213 points of interest for the conservation of seals (caves which should be explored, possible rest areas, accumulations of waste, possible risks to the seal etc.).

To obtain new information about the presence and behaviour of animal

The information campaign was evaluated as especially productive in terms of obtaining evidence and observations of the seal. Up to 14 testimonies from observers were collected using a sightings form adapted from those designed by MOm (Greece), SAD-AFAG (Turkey) and the Natural Park of Madeira (Portugal). The rapid collection of these model forms was made possible by TMG. The first observations dated back to October 2007, so it was deemed possible that the arrival of the animal might have been around or even before this period. Because there are far fewer sailors in the winter, it is possible that the animal had not been observed for several months during the season.

In addition, a team of researchers was hired to monitor more than 40 miles of coastline to locate and classify caves that might serve as a refuge for seals, with special emphasis on identifying the most suitable shelters where a possible future visual or automated follow-up system could be established.

The field work is still ongoing. It began in August taking advantage of recent sightings and the good weather at that time of year. To date, 17 days of effective field work have allowed us to monitor the area designated for the study: from Cala Figuera to Soller. The first objective is to locate and inventory the potential areas of rest, mostly caves and rocky platforms, so as to know where to start looking for the animal in its haul-outs. The team has travelled the entire coastline with a 5m Boston Whaler, towing a diver with the objective of locating all existing caves along the coast. Each time the diver spotted a possible cave, he undertook a closer inspection. Using this system, the team has geo-referenced 101 points (mainly caves, beaches and rocky platforms).

Also, along with the survey work, they install cameras with interval timers, and look for seal tracks and traces of droppings and/or hair. If found, the search protocol includes the taking of biological samples for a DNA profile of the individual to determine the sex and possibly, to trace the animal’s origins.

Interactions with fisheries

From the moment the seal sighting was confirmed, it became clear that it would be necessary to obtain the cooperation of local fishermen in order to assess the potential risks arising from fishing activities, whose maximum intensity – both professional and recreational – occurs in summer.

Drawing of a ‘moruna’ coastal fishing device (by Gabriel Bonnin, courtesy Parc Nacional de Cabrera).

Google Earth photo of a ‘moruna’.

In the early stages, it was found that all observations of the seal had been made in the vicinity of the setting points of a fishing device called a ‘moruna’. This is a traditional form of fishing gear of remarkable complexity and considerable dimensions. The morunas are set at coastal points with very specific current/depth requirements. The points are randomly allocated each year among professional fishermen. The gear is set to drive large pelagic fish (tuna, carangids etc.) through a labyrinthine system and into an inner cage in which the fish are kept alive until the moment of collection by the fisherman.

Historical seal mortality records have reported some deaths in morunas, although the last case recorded off the coast of Santanyí (in 1951) was later confirmed as an intentional catch, and not an accidental death: 45 years later, the old fisherman admitted that after repeated ‘attacks’ by the seal on his moruna, he modified some parts of the gear to act as a trap, so that the animal would drown after entering.

Despite the slight risk that the morunas might pose, officers of the Directorate General of Fisheries had to face the fact that such a device was set in the area of the marine reserve of El Toro, a mere 1200m from the seal sighting. The gear posed a potential risk to the animal.

Moreover, along the 50km of coastline where the sightings occurred, about ten additional morunas were deployed from May to August.

The authorities asked the fisherman to voluntarily lift the moruna from the El Toro marine reserve, offering him the alternative of setting the gear elsewhere. The professional, a young fisherman from Port d'Andratx, who had been authorized this year to set morunas at other points of the coast, readily understood the problem and agreed to dismantle it without argument. He also declined to set the moruna at an alternative point, reasoning that the device requires considerable work in custom design to adapt it to a specific point, and that this work is customarily done in winter, when tasks at sea are not possible.

Thanks to the information team we know now that in one of the morunas fishermen had noticed that, on some days, some of the medium-sized fish caught in the vertical nets of the gear appeared gashed in a very particular way, as if bitten and crushed by a dog. For an old retired fisherman, it was the unmistakable signature of a monk seal, but the moruna crew, still ignorant of the seal’s reappearance, remained unaware of the cause.

In any case, it is noteworthy that there has been no negative response towards the seal from the fishing world, and that the interest and enthusiasm with which the media have followed the case has not generated even the slightest shadow of conflict. Quite the contrary: the people with whom the information team had contact reacted with enthusiasm to the return of the monk seal, some with a tinge of disbelief, but in any case with complete readiness to cooperate.

Current situation

Evidence suggests that the animal is still in the area, with the last sighting occurring on 18 September, 2008. The sightings are dispersed and unpredictable, sometimes in places with high-intensity boat traffic, where it makes no sense to create areas of exclusion. Measures of that kind are, at this moment, considered unnecessary, because they would be difficult to justify by the administration and difficult to understand for citizens. At times, the animal has remained in a specific coastal area, despite intense boat traffic. Likewise, there are no indications of conflict with fishing activities, so it seems unreasonable to propose restrictions at a time when fishing is already shrinking due to economic pressures.

If at some point a resting area is identified (or in the unlikely event that the animal is a pregnant female that might give birth in coming weeks in an identified cave shelter), it would be necessary to implement a surveillance programme, in accordance with the importance this has for the Balearic Islands in taking the first step towards achieving a resident population of monk seals.

It’s true that our ancestors killed seals with the same dedication with which some people still hunt for other animals indiscriminately (See EndQuote). It is also the case, particularly unfortunate, that it was an officer of the Guardia Civil who, fifty years ago, killed the last monk seal in Mallorca. At that time, there were no voices of protest in Balearic Islands society. But in 2008, the reappearance of this animal has triggered a wave of interest and sympathy for the monk seal cause. Although many parameters show that the pressure on the coast of the Balearic Islands is much higher than it was 150 years ago, there is no longer the direct animosity towards the seals that led them to extinction here.

The presence of the animal and the interest it generates among the population, provides a very powerful incentive to engineer the means by which its local recovery can become a reality, since we now have incontestable proof that the seal can live in an area crowded with touristic infrastructure, especially when, as is the case, they find food. It is likely, in this sense, that the existence of a marine reserve with proper surveillance, in which the fish fauna has achieved a remarkable density, has been helpful in keeping the animal here. For the moment, we follow developments closely, and the coming winter will see the systematic exploration of the identified potential cave shelters. Prudence should guide the decision-making process that will take place in coming months; this as a continuation of the work first started in 1990, whose results can be found here: http://dgcapea.caib.es/pe/vell_mari.htm.

Copyright © 2008 Antoni Font, Joan Mayol, Manu Sanfelix, Carlota Viada, The Monachus Guardian. All Rights Reserved