\u2026estimated to be 1 month old<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe major threats to the monk seal in Cyprus are considered to be loss and degradation of habitats, urbanisation of the immediately adjacent areas, and tourism\/recreational pressures. Most monk seal habitats are included in the Natura 2000 areas for which preliminary management plans have been prepared. No monk seal by-catch has been noted in Cyprus.<\/p>\n
Legal Protection<\/strong><\/p>\nMonk seals have been protected, among other species, in Cyprus since 1971 by the Fisheries Law (CAP 135) and Regulations made up to 1990 (Reg. No. 273\/90). Moreover, monk seals are included in Annex II of the Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity (SPA Protocol) of the Barcelona Convention, which Cyprus ratified with the Law No. 20(III)\/2001.<\/p>\n
Monk seals are a Priority species (Annex II) in the Habitats Directive (92\/43\/EEC) and for their conservation the designation of Special Areas of Conservation is required. The Habitats Directive has been transposed to the national legislation in 2003 with the Law on the Protection and Management of Nature and Wildlife, No. 153(I)\/2003. The Natura 2000 network in Cyprus is being set up through this Law.<\/p>\n
Apart from the above national, regional and EU legislation, there are a number of other provisions in the fisheries legislation that are indirectly relevant to the protection of monk seals, such as the prohibitions on the use of explosives, fish resource management measures, especially those concerning the limitations on fishing effort, seasonal restrictions on nets setting at water depth less than 5 m, closed seasons for trawling etc.
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by Melina Marcou, Department of Fisheries and Marine Research, Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment, Republic of Cyprus Monitoring Programme and Surveys Monk seal surveys had previously been carried out in Cyprus in 1997, 2005-2006 and 2011. These surveys, along with the sighting records, identified a small number (<10) of monk seals still inhabiting … <\/p>\n
Continue reading “The Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus in Cyprus”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,42,1],"tags":[32,35],"class_list":["post-3261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mediterranean-news","category-cyprus","category-med-monk-seal","tag-sightings","tag-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3261"}],"version-history":[{"count":70,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4291,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3261\/revisions\/4291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/a>Monk seal surveys had previously been carried out in Cyprus in 1997, 2005-2006 and 2011. These surveys, along with the sighting records, identified a small number (<10) of monk seals still inhabiting the seas around Cyprus. A number of caves were examined along the coastline of Cyprus during the surveys for existence of suitable monk seal habitats. According to the findings, sea caves located in Akamas area and Cape Greco area, both areas part of the Natura 2000 network, are likely to be suitable monk seal habitats. In addition, sea caves in the Limassol and Xylofagou areas were recorded and the presence of the monk seals was confirmed.