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.
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.
Following a complaint lodged by The Monachus Guardian (see Sealed with a Kiss? below), National Geographic has removed a recent picture story on its website featuring orphaned monk seal “Badem”, and National Geographic Fellow Enric Sala.
In reply to our email, Enric Sala stated: “I was shown your email today about this post on the Wild Blog site. When I read the post (which I did for the first time this morning) I was alarmed and asked for it to be removed immediately, which they did. I am well aware of the issues associated with rehabilitation of monk seals, and agree with your concerns… I apologize for any offense that this post may have caused you and our monk seal friends. I will work to make sure that this kind of mistake is not repeated.”
If you believe the Beatles, love is all you need. Perhaps … but best bring SCUBA gear just in case.
Badem, an orphaned monk seal that lives just off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, gives killer hugs—literally!
The affectionate pinniped loves to play with people. […]
Marine ecologist and National Geographic Fellow Enric Sala got called in last year, along with Turkey’s Underwater Research Society (SAD-AFAG), to help teach Badem not to hurt the ones she loves. […]
Ah! for those halcyon days when National Geographic was actually a serious journal, rather than a Disney publication.
Contrary to the impression conveyed in your “report”, rescue and rehabilitation of Mediterranean monk seals — Europe’s most endangered marine mammal — is an issue of crucial importance. With few case studies from which to draw experience, each rehabilitation presents a steep learning curve to those involved — veterinarians, nurses, researchers, volunteers. Occasionally, pups in rehab may become imprinted on their human carers, and — as in Badem’s case — continue to interact with humans after release. One of the keys to remedying this behavioural aberration is to discourage beach-goers and swimmers from playing or interacting with the animal — thereby benefiting both the seal itself and the humans involved. Swimming with monk seals can be dangerous — as attested by the considerable numbers of people who have sustained injuries during such play.
Making light of the risks rather than emphasising their potential seriousness, your picture story only ends up romanticising such interactions, and is therefore the height of irresponsibility (as well as poor journalism).
To suggest that a National Geographic Fellow was called in “to help teach Badem not to hurt the ones she loves” (i.e. by swimming and interacting with her) is not only an insult to the intelligence but also to all those dedicated people who have been working in monk seal rehab and post-release monitoring over the years.
William M. Johnson, Editor, The Monachus Guardian, www.monachus-guardian.org