Category: Mediterranean News

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Monk seal monitoring cameras installed on Desertas Islands, Madeira

by Rosa Pires, Parque Natural da Madeira Service

Desertas camera installationFunded by the Portuguese bank Espírito Santo’s Biodiversity Award, Parque Natural da Madeira Service has installed four cameras in the area most frequented by monk seals on land — in Tabaqueiro cave and on Tabaqueiro beach, on the Desertas Islands of Madeira.

The PNMS team was assisted by CBD-Habitat Foundation of Spain, which has been developing and perfecting this method of monitoring the monk seal population since 1994, at the Côte des Phoques in the Western Sahara. The teams have been collaborating on monk seal conservation since 2008, under the framework of the “Action Plan for the Recovery of the Mediterranean Monk Seal in the Eastern Atlantic”, established under the auspices of the Bonn Convention.

The main goal of the Desertas camera initiative is to improve seal monitoring in the nature reserve, gaining a better knowledge of seal behaviour on land, while improving the photo-identification catalogue of this population. Should it prove successful, this monitoring method will be maintained in the Tabaqueiro area but also expanded to other areas that are used or have high probability of being used by monk seals. We eagerly await the next reproductive season — which begins in November — when seals will again use the Tabaqueiro area!

Portugal
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Stranded monk seal rescued on Naxos — but was it harassed with good intentions first?

Photo Courtesy Thomas Lienenbröker and Thomas Sebralla

A Mediterranean monk seal pup, possibly separated from its mother following rough weather earlier in the week, has been rescued on the Cycladic island of Naxos. It was taken into care and evacuated to Athens on 20 September by the Greek NGO MOm, the Hellenic Society for the Study & Protection of the Monk Seal.

Two German visitors to Naxos alerted TMG of the stranding, describing the young seal as approximately 1-1.2 meters in length with characteristic white belly patch. Their first sighting occurred at around 12:00 noon on Wednesday 19 September at Agia Ana, where their curiosity was aroused by the presence of a small crowd at the harbour beach.

“When we got closer,” Thomas Lienenbröker and Thomas Sebralla reported, “we realized that there was a small seal trying to crawl onto the beach. […] There were about maybe 10 people around, of which two Greeks tried to make the seal crawl back into the water. One of them grabbed the seal by its tail and took it a few meters into the sea. It swam a couple of meters and then tried to get back onto land again, a couple of meters further down the beach. We asked if anyone had called for help, and we were told that the coast guard had been informed.”

Returning to the scene at around 18.00, there was again an assembled crowd, this time including two coast guard officers. The pup, reported Lienenbröker and Sebralla, could be seen “under a bushy tree in the shade… seemingly exhausted, but alive.”

Concluding that the seal was now in safe hands, the two men left to catch the bus. “On leaving we noticed the coast guard heading towards their car and leaving the scene, with more than 25 people standing around the seal. Waiting for the bus we then could see someone grabbing the seal and taking it back into the water. It swam a short while and then tried to get back onto land again. When we left on the bus the seal had made its way back up onto the beach, with even more people looking on.”

Although the Coast Guard and Port Police form an integral part of the RINT monk seal rescue network in Greece, this case appears to demonstrate how important it would be for some designated authority to control the scene of a stranding, ensuring the appropriate measures are taken, and misguided intrusions by the public prevented.

Under care in Athens. Photo courtesy MOm

Unless indicated otherwise by expert guidance, members of the public should not approach a stranded monk seal, but keep it under observation from a distance, reporting its presence to the Port Police, or directly to MOm, the NGO which administers the RINT. Under no circumstances should the animal be touched or manhandled — factors likely to increase stress and worsen its condition, as well as jeopardising any possibility of an abandoned pup being reunited with its mother.

The 3-week old Naxos pup was described as weak and dehydrated by MOm as it arrived in Athens on Thursday, en route to Alonnisos where the organisation still operates a dilapidated 20 year old rehabilitation cabin, in much need of renewal or replacement.

Greece

Greece
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Monk seal death in Ithaca: another forgotten statistic?

On 27 August, we published news on our Facebook page of an apparent monk seal killing on the islet of Atokos near Ithaca. The incident had been reported to us by Mattia Bernasconi of Ithaca-based Kioni.net, who discovered the young seal floating dead in the water, its stomach and abdomen bearing a large, deep gash.

Although we understand that Kioni reported the incident to the Ithaca Port Police, no official alert was received by MOm (Hellenic Society for the Study & Protection of the Monk Seal), the NGO that administers the monk seal rescue and stranding network in Greece (RINT). Port Police offices form important constituent parts of the RINT, being encouraged to report as a matter of urgency any monk seal deaths or strandings.

The Monachus Guardian alerted MOm of the monk seal death on Atokos by email on 27 August, but received no reply until a followup message on 12 September.

We were informed that the organisation had been in touch with Kioni as soon as news of the apparent killing appeared on the Internet. With the Port Police’s lapse in reporting the incident, however, and the body subsequently drifting away or washing up unremarked elsewhere, any chance of a necropsy had been lost.

Examining the photos, MOm expressed the view that the injury might have been inflicted while the animal was still trapped in fishing nets (dead or alive), with the intention of sinking the carcass (and thus potentially incriminating evidence). The absence of the body preventing any firm conclusion on the cause of death, however, no further investigation was conducted nor information released to the press.

The official, NGO and press reaction to the killing comes in stark contrast to similar incidents in Hawaii, which have generated headlines nationally, intensive investigation, outreach programmes to local fishing communities and legislative change.

We have to wonder when Greece and the European Union might wake up to similar action.

Greece
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Monk seal sighting in Albania

Photo © Mario-Congedo

Further details have emerged of a rare monk seal sighting in southern Albania, which took place on 4 August 2012 by three Italian tourists while on a snorkelling trip.

One observer, Mario Congedo, of the Corpo Forestale San Cataldo (Lecce), informs us that the sighting occurred at about 12.00 hrs in the area south of Vlore (Valona), about 30 meters from a rocky shore, near a bay named ‘Valle dell’orso’ (Bear Valley). He was able to take several shots with a compact camera as the animal surfaced.

While there is little definitive information available on the status or habitat of the Mediterranean monk seal in Albanian waters, the species has generally been considered extinct there for many years. Rather than pointing to a resident population, sporadic sightings have been attributed to seasonal movements from elsewhere, such as the Ionian Islands of Greece — in this case, within easy swimming distance for a seal.

Albania

Further information

AGI. 2012. Monk seal, spotted and photographed in Albanian waters, AGI.it, 18 August 20012.

TMG. 2001. Albanian Puzzles, Letters, The Monachus Guardian 4(2): November 2001.

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Harassment of Croatian monk seal by tourists captured on camera

Disturbance of a beach-loafing Mediterranean monk seal by tourists on the Croatian island of Cres, has been caught on camera and published by local NGO Blue World Institute. The species, once considered effectively extinct along this coast, has been making something of a comeback in recent years. Though some have characterised the incident as ‘minor’, accusing conservationists of exaggeration, it is perhaps worthwhile noting that such disturbance to a resting monk seal would be considered illegal in Hawaii, potentially incurring fines of up to $50,000. The return of the monk seal to Croatia is likely to result in increasing interactions of this kind, both in number and intensity. It is perhaps time for the Croatian authorities and international bodies concerned with the survival of the species — whoever they may be — to map out practical strategies to minimise the impact of such interactions.