Tag: release

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Just published: Monachus Guardian June 2010

Just published: the June 2010 issue of The Monachus Guardian, the biannual journal focusing on the Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals.

This issue of The Monachus Guardian brings a special focus to the Mediterranean monk seals shot and dynamited in the Eastern Mediterranean since January. What is actually being done to eliminate the single most serious mortality threat confronting the species?

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE:

Editorial: An epidemic of killings.

Hawaiian News: Seal numbers continue to dive…

Mediterranean News: Greece: Alarming numbers of dead seals… Mauritania: Record births at Cabo Blanco… Turkey: Monk seal deaths in the Turkish Aegean… New population size assessment study in the NE Mediterranean…

Cover Story: Markos’ Case: Trauma, treatment, and reflections, by Emily Joseph.

In Focus I: Monk seal killed by dynamite blast in the Aegean, by Anastasia Miliou.

In Focus II: Nefeli’s rehabilitation: methods, results, and challenges, by Emily Joseph.

Perspectives: The world’s two remaining monk seal species: how many different ways are there of being Critically Endangered? by Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara.

Research: Mediterranean monk seal, Monachus monachus, re-sighted along the Israeli coastline after more than half a century, by Aviad Scheinin, Oz Goffman, Mia Elasar and Dani Kerem…

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>.

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Mediterranean seal Badem chooses to avoid tourist season

Press Watch, Hürriyet Daily News, April 12, 2010

Badem, probably the most famous Mediterranean Monk Seal, is back in Turkey after taking herself on a tour of the Greek island of Rhodes during the winter months. […]

The problem is that Badem is far too happy to be with humans and likes nothing better than to take a break by jumping into a dinghy for forty winks.

This all sounds very delightful, and sure enough, last month she was found in a dinghy near Marmaris, recuperating from her long swim from Rhodes back to Turkey where she likes to spend the summer months.

According to Zafer Kızılkaya, a representative of SAD/AFAG, “she was resting in a dinghy, but it seems some people took advantage of this, and we received reports that some people were kicking her and throwing stones at her. Unfortunately the attitude of many Turkish people is that, when they see an animal like Badem, they want to play with her, but really it’s more like torture. This is quite intolerable.”

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KP2 under study at University of California

Press Watch, UC Santa Cruz Press Release, March 18, 2010
Head trainer Beau Richter has Hō'ailona lie on a platform scale so researchers can weigh him. Photo by Terrie Williams.

A young Hawaiian monk seal that was removed from the wild last year for treatment and rehabilitation is providing researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, with a rare opportunity to study the physiology of this critically endangered species.

Ultimately, the information from these studies can be used to help monk seals in the wild, according to Terrie Williams, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz, who is overseeing the research in coordination with the NOAA Fisheries Service’s Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, and other researchers.

“No one has ever had the opportunity to conduct these kinds of basic physiological studies with a tropical seal,” she said. “The monk seal population is in trouble, and we hope that these studies will help us to better understand their habitat requirements.”

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Nefeli by satellite

Three weeks after her release into the protected waters of the National Marine Park of Alonnisos, Northern Sporades, Greek NGO MOm has released information on the young monk seal’s movements and dives. Data recorded by the attached satellite transmitter indicates that the orphaned seal, rescued on the Ionian island of Kefalonia on 14 October 2009, has so far remained within the borders of the NMPANS, venturing from her release at the core zone island of Piperi as far as Gioura and Kyra Panaya. Nefeli’s maximum dive depth so far, reports MOm, has reached 100 meters. The organisation expects to continue monitoring Nefeli by satellite for 5 months, until the transmitter is shed naturally in her first moult.

Full size image

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‘Nefeli’ swims free

Nefeli is carried from the MOm rehabilitation centre to the launch that will carry her into the heart of the Marine Park (Courtesy MOm)

Orphaned Mediterranean monk seal ‘Nefeli’ was released into the National Marine Park of Alonissos, Northern Sporades today, following a traditional parting ceremony held in the fishing village of Steni Vala.

Rescued as a week-old pup on the Ionian island of Kefalonia on 14 October 2009, the female seal then underwent three and a half months of treatment at the MOm rehabilitation centre in Steni Vala.

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