The Monachus-Guardian — Headlines-News-Articles — 2008-2018
Dedicated to Monk Seals and their Threatened Habitats
Turkish daily Hürriyet has published a gallery of photos on Badem and her new temporary enclosure, funded by businessman Mustafa Koç.
The orphaned monk seal, whose interactions with swimmers and beachgoers have become a source of concern to conservationists, is due again for release. SAD-AFAG, the NGO caring for her, has expressed the hope that she will adapt to the wild, and show less interest in humans.
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. […]
Just published: the November 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.
This issue features news and articles by some 30 authors from 13 countries from across the range of the genus, from Hawaii to Mauritania, Turkey to Spain, Madeira to Greece.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE:
Guest Editorial: Monk seals and fisheries need attention, education and cooperation, by Trisha Kehaulani Watson.
International News: Quebec workshop builds Med-Pacific links, but will action ever follow?…
Hawaiian News: Short-lived freedom for KP2…
Mediterranean News: Greece: Orphaned, newborn monk seal rescued at Kefalonia… Madeira: Young seal chooses busy Funchal as home… Mauritania: Reaching the 50-pup mark at Cabo Blanco… Turkey: Monk seals monitored at Karaburun Peninsula…
Cover Story: Tracking Artemis: Making sense out of a young seal’s death, by Panagiotis Dendrinos & Emily Joseph.
In Focus I: Progressive re-colonization of monk seal resting and reproduction habitats as the result of strict protection, by Pablo Fernández de Larrinoa, Hamdi M’Barek, Moulaye Haye, Miguel Ángel Cedenilla, Mercedes Muñoz, Ana Maroto & Luis Mariano González.
In Focus II: Monk seal sightings in Italy move to the central Tyrrhenian sea, by Giulia Mo.
Perspectives I: Tackling the conflict between seals and fisheries in Greece: an end or a beginning? by Stella Adamantopoulou and Vangelis Paravas.
Perspectives II: Mallorca’s lone seal: the 2009 follow-up, by Antoni Font and Joan Mayol.
Letters to the Editor: Seals of Coincidence, by Professor Keith Ronald… and Mediterranean monk seal encounters – Dos and Don’ts, by Marianna Psaradellis…
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.
An orphaned new-born Monachus monachus was found stranded late in the afternoon of Wednesday 14th of October, at the beach of Assos in Kefalonia island, by local residents. MOm’s Rescue team travelled immediately to the area and examined the 10 day female pup that was still alone at the beach, lost from its mother following the severe storms of the last few days. The animal was found dehydrated and had visible injuries on its body, probably form the wave action on the rocky coast. MOm is the Greek NGO working actively, over the last decades, to conserve the Mediterranean monk seal, a critically endangered species with less than 600 individuals remaining throughout the world
The young seal was named “Nefeli” by the local residents and volunteers, that found her helpless and stood guard overnight, until MOm’s team arrived to the area. MOm’s specialists provided first aid to Nefeli and, assisted by the Port Police officers of Fiskardo, prepared the pup for its immediate and safe transportation to the Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre of MOm at Steni Vala, Alonissos, within the National Marine Park of Alonnisos, Northern Sporades.
Upon its arrival at MOm’s Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre and the completion of the first veterinary tests, MOm’s staff, in collaboration with the Veterinary School of the University of Thessaloniki, will put Nefeli in an intensive veterinary therapy and rehabilitation program, The first critical phase includes the gradual provision of fish porridge, as there is still no substitute of maternal milk for the Mediterranean monk seal.
The treatment and rehabilitation program of a Mediterranean monk seal pup lasts approximately 5 months and if it is completed successfully the animal is released healthy back to its natural environment. The complete rescue, treatment and rehabilitation procedures all follow strict international protocols. The whole process is long and demanding for both Nefeli and the people involved, with several tests, continuous treatment, around the clock feedings and hard physical work. But MOm’s specialized personnel, the various expert collaborators and especially the volunteers assisting, are all optimistic and determined to make their best to see Nefeli healthy.
MOm would like to thank the Port Police Authority of Fiskardo and all the local supporters for their valuable contribution in the effort to rescue the new-born monk seal pup.
If you would like to support Nefeli’s rescue and treatment program, do visit MOm’s site www.mom.gr.
(ANSAmed) – MADRID – A baby monk-seal, one of the ten most endangered mammals in the world, was born last week in a natural reserve in Mauritania that is financed by the Spanish government. Monk-seals had not given birth on the shores of the eastern Atlantic for centuries. The baby seal, named Sofia in honour of the Queen of Spain, who visited the reserve two years ago, was spotted at the foot of a cliff by a patrol which protects monk-seals and works for Spanish foundation CBD-Habitat. Press agency EFE reported that sources within the Spanish ministry of the Environment made the announcement. It is since the 15th Century that the Mediterranean monk-seal did not reproduce on the beaches, islands and nooks of the Mauritanian coast because human hunters had forced them to retreat to deep caves, including underwater ones, along the coast.
Mauritania
Nouadhibou, Mauritania
The Turkish media is reporting that runaway monk seal Badem has been recaptured by a team from SAD-AFAG, the Underwater Research Society – Mediterranean Seal Research Group, at Milas Ören in Gökova Bay. The orphaned seal had escaped her temporary captivity in a large, specially-constructed sea pen at a fish farm in Gökova Bay.
Despite repeated warnings, swimmers and beach-goers were again interacting with the seal, posing potentially serious dangers both to the swimmers themselves and to Badem. Experts have expressed concern that every human interaction that occurs delays the possibility of Badem losing her interest in humans and returning to the wild.
Milas Ören
Milas Ören
Further info
Fok Badem’in tatili kısa sürdü, Aksam, 28 August 2009.