{"id":930,"date":"2010-09-12T13:50:46","date_gmt":"2010-09-12T13:50:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/?p=930"},"modified":"2014-01-03T10:28:14","modified_gmt":"2014-01-03T10:28:14","slug":"seal-sightings-in-lebanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/12\/seal-sightings-in-lebanon\/","title":{"rendered":"Seal sightings in Lebanon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-978\" title=\"lebanon_video01\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/lebanon_video01.jpg\" width=\"270\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/lebanon_video01.jpg 270w, https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/lebanon_video01-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 270px) 100vw, 270px\" \/>Simon Nadim, Managing Director of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.puretechlb.com\">Pure Tech Diving Facility<\/a> in Batroun, Lebanon, has contacted TMG to report two separate sightings of a Mediterranean monk seal, on the 15.08.2010 and 04.09.2010 respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The encounters both occurred whilst diving amongst caves in northern Lebanon and were recorded on video. The animal is reported to be at least 2m in length, and is evidently in good condition.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Given the extreme rarity of the species, and its sensitivity to human disturbance, the exact location of the sightings is being kept confidential.<\/p>\n<p>The Mediterranean monk seal has been considered extinct in Lebanon for many years, and it is likely that this particular individual originates from elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>It may or may not be coincidence that seal sightings were also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.monachus-guardian.org\/mguard25\/2525research.htm\">reported along the coast of Israel<\/a> earlier this year, where the species was also previously considered extinct.<\/p>\n<p>Our thanks to Simon Nadim and Karim Hermes of Pure Tech Diving Facility for sharing this important information and video footage.<br \/>\nPure Tech&#8217;s Facebook page: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=44025245569\">http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/group.php?gid=44025245569<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monachus-guardian.org\/video\/sighting_Lebanon_2010_08_15.mp4\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bord\" src=\"http:\/\/www.monachus-guardian.org\/video\/video01.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"120\" width=\"180\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">First sighting on 15.08.2010. Video courtesy Simon Nadim, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.puretechlb.com\" target=\"_blank\">Pure Tech Diving Facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.monachus-guardian.org\/video\/sighting_Lebanon_2010_09_04.mp4\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"bord\" src=\"http:\/\/www.monachus-guardian.org\/video\/video02.jpg\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" height=\"120\" width=\"180\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Second sighting on 4.09.2010. Video courtesy Simon Nadim, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.puretechlb.com\" target=\"_blank\">Pure Tech Diving Facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Simon Nadim, Managing Director of the Pure Tech Diving Facility in Batroun, Lebanon, has contacted TMG to report two separate sightings of a Mediterranean monk seal, on the 15.08.2010 and 04.09.2010 respectively. The encounters both occurred whilst diving amongst caves in northern Lebanon and were recorded on video. The animal is reported to be at &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/2010\/09\/12\/seal-sightings-in-lebanon\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Seal sightings in Lebanon&#8221;<\/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":[43,1,49],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mediterranean-news","category-med-monk-seal","category-lebanon","tag-sightings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","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=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2787,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions\/2787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monachus-guardian.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}