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LifeWeb partnership gives multi-million dollar boost to protected areas

United Nations Environment Programme, Press Release, 28 October 2010

Spain-UNEP LifeWeb Partnership to Raise Incomes and Improve Conservation in Protected Areas in Asia, Africa and Latin America

Nagoya, Japan,  28 October 2010. More than fifteen protected areas, including one managing monk seals off Mauritania and another in Sumatra that is home to orangutans, tigers and elephants, are to receive a US$6.8 million conservation boost.

Today, at the 10th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan, the government of Spain and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) announced a new partnership for protected areas under the LifeWeb initiative.

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Lazarus dies in rehab

Orphaned monk seal pup ‘Lazarus’, rescued during stormy weather off the Aegean island of Evia earlier this month, has died during rehabilitation, Greek NGO MOm has announced.

Despite intensive care at the organisation’s rehabilitation unit on Alonnisos, the pup did not respond to treatment. As has been the case with other exceptionally young monk seals brought into rehabilitation at the MOm unit, Lazarus (estimated to be around 10 days old when found) continued to lose weight despite regular, round-the-clock feedings.

Body temperature and glucose levels also remained unstable.

The pup, reports MOm, died on Monday 25 October, following a seizure. A necropsy will be performed in Athens in an effort to determine the precise cause of death.

MOm has appealed to the public to join efforts to save the critically-endangered Mediterranean monk seal, its survival threatened by habitat destruction, direct killing and overfishing.

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Please Help the Monk Seals!

Media Watch, Heartbeat of Kauai, 26 October 2010

I was at Ke’e beach around sunset today and was horrified to see about 20 tourists with snorkels following a Hawaiian Monk Seal around the reef, yelling to their friends on shore and making a general commotion in the water right near the seal.

Some of them were getting as close as a foot away from the seal and I went in the water to let everyone know that they should stay away from the animal and leave it alone. Nobody listened to me and they ignored my nice requests to give it some space. I’m a pretty gentle person and I eventually gave up and headed back onto the beach where I told my husband what had happened and he became infuriated that these people were harassing an endangered animal for their own entertainment. […]

Anyhow, I am posting this because I feel very passionate about the subject and I encourage all those who read this to speak up and let people know that the seals need space, peace & quiet and protection when you see them approached by tourists on the beach or in the water. If they ignore you, it might help to let them know that it is illegal to get close to the Hawaiian Monk Seals. Thanks for reading this and please do what you can to protect these sacred animal relatives!

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Monk seal survival enhancement research continues at Laysan Island and French Frigate Shoals

NOAA PIFSC, Quarterly Research Bulletin, October 2010
Hawaiian monk seal researchers administer dewormer medication to a juvenile monk seal at Laysan Island.

In an effort to assist the recovery of endangered Hawaiian monk seals, researchers in the Center’s Protected Species Division are seeking ways to increase the seals’ survival. As part of this research, the monk seal Survival Enhancement (SE) Program continued its monk seal deworming trial at Laysan Island in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. The objective of the study is to rid juvenile seals of parasitic worms, thereby increasing the seals’ growth and chances of survival. In May, program staff completed a fourth treatment of seals at Laysan with the help of visiting veterinarian Eric Anderson, and a fifth treatment with visiting veterinarian Heather Harris in August. The new cohort of 28 pups born on Laysan in 2010 will be added to the deworming study in November.

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New technology aids study of pelagic habitat use

NOAA PIFSC, Quarterly Research Bulletin, October 2010

The Center’s Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program is using new technology to better understand the foraging behavior and habitat use of monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands. The new tool is a telemetry tag that incorporates a global positioning system (GPS) unit, a GSM cell phone module, and standard sensors for recording data on the seal’s surroundings.

The novel tag was developed by researchers at the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), University of St. Andrews, U.K., and has greatly increased the ability of researchers to describe habitat use by seal populations. The device increases both the quality and amount of data researchers are able to obtain in marine mammal telemetry studies.

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Paid not to fish

Media Watch, Christopher Pala, Honolulu Weekly, 13 October 2010

Some folks made a killing depleting the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Wait ‘til you see how much they’ll make not to fish there anymore.

The news came innocuously enough, in a press release earlier this year from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. As a result of former President George W. Bush’s designation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a marine national monument in June 2006, Congress appropriated funds to compensate the owners of seven bottomfish licenses and 15 lobster licenses because they would no longer be able to fish there. The bottom-fishermen would share $2.2 million, the lobster fishermen $4.3 million. All licenses had been given out for free. […]

After two temporary closures by NOAA, the Honolulu federal court closed the fishery again in 2000 because of still-disputed evidence that the collapse of the lobster population had triggered mass starvation among monk seal pups, and that in turn caused a 5 percent yearly decline in the monk seal population. The fishery was never reopened, presumably because the lobster stocks never recovered, and the monk seal pups in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are still starving. […]

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