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Vol. 11 (2): November 2008


Legal protection of the Mediterranean monk seal in Croatia

Petar Radošević, LLM

Zagreb, Croatia


The Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus; Croatian/standard/: sredozemna medvjedica, Croatian/dialectal/: morski medvid, morski čovik) is the only species of seal that inhabited the Adriatic Sea, part of which belongs to the Republic of Croatia.

Although Croatians never commercially exploited monk seals (e.g. for food, skins or oil)1, the animals have since ancient times been blamed for destroying fishermen’s nets, and have been mercilessly killed in revenge by the fishermen.

croatian monk seal sighting

With monk seal sightings on the rise in Croatian waters, are protection laws capable of safeguarding the returning species?

The present status of this species in the Adriatic is a subject of some discussion among Croatian biologists. The only certain fact is that occasionally monk seals are sighted along the Croatian coast, although these sightings are very rare and some of them (quite) doubtful2. Nevertheless, it is certain that even today Mediterranean monk seals can (if very infrequently) be observed in the Croatian Adriatic.

There exist two explanations for these sightings. According to the first, the Mediterranean monk seal in the Adriatic is extinct, and reported sightings are of individual animals that wander into the Adriatic from the Ionian Sea, and afterwards return (assuming they don't perish on the journey). The population of Mediterranean monk seals indigenous to the Adriatic Sea no longer exists3. In contrast, the second theory suggests that there exists, even today, a very small population of Mediterranean monk seals of no more than 20 individuals, that still inhabits the Croatian Adriatic4. The reports of the sightings are of those individuals indigenous to the Croatian Adriatic.

While it is not the aim of this article to debate the merits of either theory or to delve deeper into the status of the monk seal in Croatia, it is clear that legal protection of the species within the Republic of Croatia is of importance to the survival of the species and its possible recovery.

This is despite the fact that – with no survivors or only intermittent sightings, legal protection remains largely hypothetical.

Though its effectiveness may be open to debate, Croatian law contains several provisions to provide for the protection of Monachus monachus. In fact, the species was legally protected for the first time in 1935 by the decree of the Directorate for Maritime Affaires in Split, and it has remained protected under Croatian law ever since5. Unfortunately, this did not prevent its disappearance and possible extinction in Croatia.

Courtesy GSM

While direct killing by fishermen was largely responsible for the eradication of the species in Croatia, law enforcement rarely met the obligations required of it.

The main contemporary legal act that provides for the protection of the Mediterranean monk seal in Croatia is the 2006 ‘Ordinance on declaration of some wild species protected and strictly protected’6, that declares this animal a ‘strictly protected species’. This legal status of monk seals is protected by the ‘Ordinance on damages caused by an illegal act against protected animal species’7. Under this legal statute, a person convicted of killing a Mediterranean monk seal may be fined up to 100.000 HRK (ca. 14.000 EUR). It has to be noted, though, that since there were no reported Mediterranean monk seal killings in Croatia during the last few decades, these legal provisions have never actually been exercised before Croatian courts of justice.

Still, we have to note that in case such an act would occur, the foreseen fine would obviously seem unsatisfactory, bearing in mind the critically-endangered status of the seal throughout the Mediterranean, and especially in Croatia (assuming that such a remnant population does survive). Fortunately, the Criminal Code of the Republic of Croatia would consider the killing of a Mediterranean monk seal to be a felony, punishable according to article 259 (its title is ‘Illegal fishing’, but it is applied to all marine animals, not just fish) of the said Code by a prison sentence of up to 1 year.

Bearing in mind that the fine for killing of a monk seal was established in 1996, and that its relative value has since significantly diminished (due both to the rise of salaries and of prices in Croatia), it is clear that this should be augmented in the near future, so it would more accurately reflect the severity of the crime. This would be especially necessary in case the sightings of monk seals in the Croatian Adriatic were to become more frequent (as seems to be the case over the last few years), or if the existence of a small monk seal colony in the Adriatic happens to be confirmed.


Footnotes

[1] Cf. H. Gomerčić, 1998: Zaštita morskih sisavaca - etičko i racionalno pitanje, u: Etika u odnosu čovjeka i životinja (Gomerčić, H., urednik), Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Zagreb, p.59.

[2] For details on recent sightings of the Mediterranean monk seal in Croatia cf. Gomerčić et al. (2005): Recent Sightings of the Monk seal in Croatian areas of the Adriatic, Monachus Guardian 8 (2): December 2005. The most recent sighting was on 14 August 2008, near the island of Cres, when it was possible even to capture the monk seal on video (for article and video cf. http://www.jutarnji.hr/clanak/art-2008,8,15,sredozemna_medvjedica,129972.jl).

[3] Cf. Gomerčić, 1998: Zaštita morskih sisavaca..., p. 59. ; Gomerčić et al., 2004: Vrste, brojnost i rasprostranjenost morskih sisavaca u hrvatskom dijelu Jadranskog mora / Abundance, population size and distrubution of marine mammals in the Croatian part of the Adriatic Sea, Zbornik radova 1. hrvatsko-slovenskog simpozija o egzotičnim i divljim životinjama-Zbornik radova 1. hrvaško-slovenskog simpozija o ljubiteljskih in prosto živečih vrstah živali (K., Vlahović, A. Marinculić, urednici), Hrvatsko veterinarsko društvo, Zagreb, p. 16. ; H. Gomerčić (1998): Čovjek je njezin (ne)prijatelj, Eurocity, 2, p.33. ; H. Gomerčić (1997): Sredozemna medvjedica, Najrjeđa i najugroženija hrvatska životinjska vrsta, Novosti American Express 13, 1 (42), p. 16.

[4] Such is the opinion of Jasna Antolović, cf. Sredozemna medvjedica opet u vodama Hvara i Visa, Slobodna dalmacija, 11.06.2008 ; Ronilac susreo 'morskog covika’, Slobodna dalmacija, 19.02.2007 ; Antolović et al. 2007. Monk seal (Monachus monachus) sightings in the Croatian part of the Adriatic with a special reference to the population of open-sea islands, The Monachus Guardian 10 (1): June 2007. (In this article the number of Monk seals in the Croatian Adriatic is estimated at 6-8 individuals.)

[5] Cf. Gomerčić, Zaštita morskih sisavaca..., p.59. As a matter of fact, Croatia was among the first countries providing legal protection to the Mediterranean monk seal (e.g. on the other side of the Adriatic, in Italy, the Mediterranean monk seals are legally protected only since 1939. Cf. Johnson, 1998. Monk seal myths in Sardinia, Monachus Guardian 1 (1): May 1998.

[6] Pravilnik o proglašavanju divljih svojti zaštićenim i strogo zaštićenim, Narodne novine (Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia) No. 7/2006

[7] Pravilnik o visini naknade štete prouzročene nedopuštenom radnjom na zaštićenim životinjskim vrstama, NN (Official Gazette of the Republic of Croatia) No. 84/1996 and 79/2002. The same legal act provides for the fines for other acts against protected species (injuring, destruction of shelters, capturing etc.), that range from 20% to 80% of the fine for the killing of such an animal.


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