Ocean trash problem ‘far from being solved,’ U.N. says

Press Watch — CNN, June 8, 2009

The world’s oceans are full of trash, causing “tremendous” negative impacts on coastal life and ecology, according to a U.N. report released Monday.

The oceans will continue to fill up with junk discarded from cities and boats without urgent action to address this buildup of marine debris, the United Nations Environment Programme says in a report titled “Marine Litter: A Global Challenge.”

Current efforts to address the problem are not working, and the issue is “far from being solved,” the report says. […]

The ocean litter is a problem for coastal communities, which rely on clean beaches for tourism dollars and to boost quality of life for their residents, the report says. Ocean trash also affects marine life and degrades human health.

Sea turtles, for example, think plastic grocery bags are jellyfish when the bags are floating in the ocean. An untold number of the turtles and other creatures, such as Hawaii’s endangered monk seal, swallow the bags and suffocate, drown or starve, said Holly Bamford, director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s marine debris program.

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Reward is offered in shooting of seals

Press Watch – Honolulu Star Bulletin, June 8, 2009

The Surfrider Foundation’s Kauai chapter is offering a reward — as yet unspecified — for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the shooting death of two Hawaiian monk seals on Kauai.

The reward will come from donations to the organization, which so far total $8,000 in the aftermath of the deaths, officials said.

“The Surfrider Foundation was outraged that somebody would willfully kill these animals, who posed no real harm to people here on Kauai,” said Surfrider Foundation volunteer Carl Berg. “We felt there was a tremendous amount of disrespect for the ocean and the ocean creatures.” […]

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JUST PUBLISHED: The Monachus Guardian, June 2009

Cover Story: Freedom at last for KP2
Cover Story: Freedom at last for KP2

We have now published the June 2009 issue of The Monachus Guardian, the biannual electronic journal focusing on the Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals. The site can be accessed at http://www.monachus-guardian.org.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE:

Guest Editorial: Monk seal: metaphor for the Mediterranean ecosystem, by Ali Cemal Gücü…

International News: IUCN World Congress votes overwhelmingly for monk seal action — but will its own specialist group pay any heed? …. plus, Who are our seals? Moving towards a standardized population estimate approach for Monachus monachus — a report on the ECS Workshop in Istanbul.

Hawaiian News: Ecosystem healthy; monk seals plunging…

Mediterranean News: Croatia: Comeback sightings… Greece: STOP PRESS | Artemis found dead on Skiathos… Turkey: Badem undergoes veterinary treatment… Mauritania: Open beach observations on the rise in Cabo Blanco…

Cover Story: Freedom at last for KP2, the first successfully released hand-reared Hawaiian monk seal, by David Schofield…

In Focus I: Artemis diary, by Eugenia Androukaki…

In Focus II: Our monk seal ambassador, ‘Desertinha’, dies in Madeira, by Rosa Pires…

Perspectives I: Our Sea, Our Life, by Konstantinos Mentzelopoulos…

Perspectives II: The 1st International Conference for Marine Mammal Protected Areas: a long overdue workshop on both Monachus species, by Spyros Kotomatas, Vangelis Paravas, Harun Güçlüsoy and Rosa Pires…

Letters to the Editor: Volunteering and internships in monk seal conservation…

Recent Publications.

The current and back issues of The Monachus Guardian are also available from the Monk Seal Library http://www.monachus-guardian.org/library.htm and may either be viewed on-line, or downloaded as PDF files.

‘Foul play’ blamed for Kauai monk seal death

Press Watch –  The Honolulu Advertiser,

Pregnant female called ‘important part of the breeding community’

A Hawaiian monk seal killed Thursday on Kaua’i’s north shore was a pregnant female who had previously given birth to four pups, according to NOAA Fisheries.

Witness accounts suggest the 600-pound monk seal, known to NOAA researchers as RK06, was shot to death, but federal officials would say only that the endangered marine mammal died as a result of “foul play.”

A necropsy on the monk seal was conducted yesterday, and NOAA Fisheries spokeswoman Wende Goo said no further details were being released because the killing is under investigation.

“Foul play” by humans also is blamed for the death of a 4-year-old male monk seal found dead on a Kaua’i beach April 19, according to Goo.

“We don’t have enough information to link the two,” she said. […]

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Feds investigate death of monk seal on Kauai

Press Watch –  The Honolulu Advertiser, May 22, 2009

Witnesses report hearing apparent gunshots, seeing mammal wash up on shore

Federal authorities are investigating the death of an endangered Hawaiian monk seal that witnesses said they believed was shot as it lounged on a beach on the North Shore of Kaua’i yesterday.

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service confirmed last night that it retrieved the carcass of a monk seal yesterday. But spokeswoman Wende Goo said the cause of death won’t be determined until a necropsy is performed.

Goo said the dead seal was a female, but declined further comment.

This is the second monk seal found dead on a Kaua’i beach in the past month. On April 19, a 4-year-old male seal was discovered dead, and Goo said that case remains under investigation. […]

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Will National Monument Status Save the Hawaiian Monk Seals?

Press Watch — from Scientific American, May 15, 2009

Increased protection on the waters around Hawaii may help save these seals

Dear EarthTalk: What is the status of Hawaiian monk seals and how will the new national monument designation in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands affect them? —Polly LaBarre, New York, NY

Easily exploited by hunters, whalers and fishermen in the 19th century, Hawaiian monk seals essentially never recovered. As early as 1976, the Hawaiian monk seal was listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The species is also on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN’s) Red List of Threatened Species, and trade in the species or its parts is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

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