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New cage built for seal Badem

Press Watch, Hürriyet Daily News, January 3, 2010
The new cage built for 'Badem,' a Mediterranean seal, cost 75,000 Turkish Liras. DHA photo

Badem, a Mediterranean seal that was found beached in Didim and had previously undergone many attempts at rehabilitation after being released into the wild in 2006 will now be kept in a special aquarium. The aquarium is in a bay in the popular resort town of Marmaris.

Businessman Mustafa Koç, Badem’s sponsor, had a special aquarium prepared for the seal that cost 75,000 Turkish Liras. In its new aquarium, Badem will get the chance to hunt live fish.

Zafer Kızılkaya, a member of the executive board of the Underwater Research Foundation, or URA, said the seal was very happy in its new aquarium and it would be released into the wild again soon, because it has grown into an adult and will need to mate. […]

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Monk seal attack investigation ongoing

Press Watch, The Garden Island, December 27, 2009

K12 is mother of seal slain in separate incident

LIHU‘E — “Maha‘ulepu Mama” is no Hawaiian monk seal to mess with.

She takes her role in perpetuating the endangered species very seriously, and woe to the woman or man who comes too close to her newborn.

Scientifically known as K12, she has given birth to at least four pups at Maha‘ulepu Beach on the South Shore. The most recent, PK4 (sex unknown at present), was earlier this month.

Authorities are continuing to investigate an encounter Monday that involved K12 taking a few bites out of Rebecca Wahlman, 28, of Kirkland, Wash.

Wahlman spent Monday night at Wilcox Memorial Hospital, where she received treatment for superficial wounds, according to a county press release. She was released on Tuesday, according to a hospital spokesperson. […]

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Visitor injured in encounter with monk seal off Kauai

Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, December 21, 2009

A 28-year-old female visitor from Kirkland, Wash. sustained superficial, non life-threatening injuries Monday in an attack by an adult female monk seal in waters off Kaua’i. […]

The incident took place at around 4:43 p.m. at Mahaulepu Beach on the south shore.

The woman had been snorkeling with a friend at the beach when the current sent her adrift to an area where several monk seals, including an adult female and a pup, were swimming.

The adult female apparently felt threatened by the snorkeler and attacked her. […]

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Monk seal’s death on Molokai investigated as deliberate killing

Press Watch, Honolulu Advertiser, December 17, 2009

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Service’s Office of Law Enforcement is investigating the recent death of an endangered Hawaiian monk seal on Molokai as a deliberate killing.

An adult male monk seal was discovered dead on Monday, southeast of Kaunakakai, said David Schofield, with NOAA’s Pacific Island Regional Office’s marine mammal response program.

A necropsy of the seal on Tuesday determined that it had been killed intentionally, Schofield said. […]

Anyone with information about the seal’s death is encouraged to call NOAA’s 24-hour enforcement hot line at 800-853-1964. […]

This year on Kauai, two Hawaiian monk seals have been deliberately killed, alarming conservationists who are working hard to preserve the rare seals, which are found only in Hawaii. The wild population of the seals is 1,200 or less and dropping 4 percent a year. […]

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