The Monachus-Guardian — Headlines-News-Articles — 2008-2018
Dedicated to Monk Seals and their Threatened Habitats
Orphaned monk seal Andriana was released at Piperi in the Northern Sporades Marine Park yesterday, following a brief overnight stay at the MOm rehabilitation unit in Steni Vala. Andriana had been in care at MOm’s new facility at the Attica Zoological Park since mid-November.
“Mediterranean monk seal biologists and managers are jetting across oceans to Hawaii to attend the International Collaboration for the Conservation of Monk Seals. The HMSRP and our international colleagues will be spending the next two weeks sharing science, outreach and management experiences to help both species of monk seal. We will be sharing news, updates and interesting facts over the next 2 weeks.” — NOAA Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program
Some — including The Monachus Guardian — have questioned the wisdom of convening a “closed door” workshop of this type at a time of severe funding shortages, urgent conservation challenges at the grassroots level, and lack of stakeholder participation in both Hawaii and the Mediterranean. [See comments on the Hawaiian Monk Seal Research Program Facebook page for a brief overview of the debate — or rather, the debate that should be.] Continue reading “The conservation workshop that wasn’t”
On Saturday the 15th of November, MOm’s Rescue Team was informed by Mrs Niki Lemoni, member of the Veterinary Network of ARION, Cetacean Rescue & Rehabilitation Research Center, that a newborn female Mediterranean monk seal was stranded orphaned in Velanio beach at Skopelos, Northern Sporades.
Continue reading “Rescue of an orphaned monk seal pup on Skopelos”
We are now in the monk seal pupping season in Madeira’s Desertas Islands. Over recent years, peak births have occurred in October, but this year we detected the first pup on 31 October. This pup was observed over 4 days to be always alone, resting on the same beach – Tabaqueiro. When on one day it was considered to be overly lethargic, it was decided to take the pup to the Rehabilitation Unit on the Desertas Islands. Fortunately, this allowed us to confirm that the pup was in a good condition; a male about three weeks of age, 114cm in length and weighing around 20kg. Awaiting better sea conditions, the young seal was released into its natural habitat the following day. Immediately entering the sea, it swam to the cave where we believe it was born – Tabaqueiro cave, considered the monk seal maternity cave of the Desertas Islands. Continue reading “First pup of 2013 spends 24 hours in Desertas Islands Rehabilitation Unit”
The ‘Costa de las Focas’ Marine and Coastal Reserve was created in 2001 by CBD-Habitat Foundation with the support of local fishermen and regional authorities, with the objective of protecting the breeding caves of the last Mediterranean monk seal colony in the world, located on the Cabo Blanco peninsula (Mauritania). Since then, every single day, the surveillance team has been present to prevent the setting of fishing gear and deter goose barnacle pickers and other potential threats or disturbance to the breeding caves and vicinity. Continue reading “Pup trapped in gill net released in the ‘Coast of Seals’ Reserve”
This seal, known as “Half”, an adult male who has been monitored since 1997 by PNMS (Parque Natural da Madeira Service), was observed by local people on a small stony beach, its debilitated state apparently due to a severe injury in the neck area. Continue reading “Wounded Madeiran monk seal returns to the sea”