— by Erwin Werdenigg, Amorgos Island Magazine
Amorgos – June 15th, 2011: The young friendly male monk seal appearing in the port of Aegiali at the middle of April quickly won the hearts of the people and became a “mascot” of tourists and also the magazine. On last Friday (June 10th) Dimitris Synodinos (Amorgos Diving Center) alerted that the animal was found dead on the beach.
People from MOm (the Greek monk seal protection group) could not travel to Amorgos themselves due to increased ferry occupancy. The animal was send to Athens on Saturday for autopsy. The examination at MOm showed that:
It was a young male seal, 6-7 months old, in good nutritional status. The animal had injuries in the back sustained by a sharp object, which crossed the side to reach the thoracic cavity, thus injuring the lung. Histological analysis will give us information on whether the animal eventually died from suffocation or internal bleeding. In any case, death resulted from the trauma deliberately inflicted upon the animal, from close distance.
MOm stresses in a statement that the Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus is currently the most endangered marine mammal in Europe and is classified as a species facing the danger of extinction. As the species is protected by law, the NGO reserves the right to use all legitimate and legal means against the culprit.
MOm also stated: “The Amorgos contribution of all was very important and we would like to thank the residents of the island and especially Dimitri Synodinos from Amorgos Diving Center, who all this time informing us of the presence of the animal on Amorgos, George Evangelou of Aegiali port, who arranged for the maintenance of the animal, and Nikitas Roussos, Mayor of Amorgos, who carried the animal on his own to the port and also the crew of Blue Star Paros for their contribution to transport the animal to Athens.”
We are quite shocked by the incident and hope that in the future attacks against seals will never happen again on Amorgos.
Images and Text courtesy Amorgos Island Magazine.
Further information: Mother and pup visit Aegiali, Amorgos
Greece
Why do people do THAT ?? why killing an helpless harmless creature ?? why ???
If the Greek govt. was serious about monk seal conservation they would already have caught the individual responsible for this needless death of a young animal. On such a small island such as Amorgos somebody must know who killed this animal. If the monk seal is to survive the govt. has to get tough with these law breakers and punish them to the fullest extent of the law. Then and only then can we hope that the monk seal can flourish.
I am getting really furious when I read news like that. I love Greece and Greeks, have good Greek friends, many committed to environment protection, I often visit that beautiful country , very often fly over Jonian and Aegean wonderful islands and seas, and I cannot understand that there still exist people who kill the always rarest seals, I cannot understand why local authorities and police are so good-for-nothing, and never able to identify people responsable for these killings. Furthermore, how is it possible that local authorities/local people do not understand that seals are also a precious tourism attraction (I and friends of mine, for instance, often choose for our holidays places where I/we know there are seals, hoping to see them), and they do not break this wall of indifference against some nusty persons that give a bad reputation to the good names of their communities? Why so seldom they foresee an at least virtual support to the few fishermen left, recognising their role of possible marine environment defenders? This is what we are trying to do in Italy in a reality like the island of Marettimo (west off Sicily, Egadi islands) where seals have started -thanks God- to reappear. Where is then MoM? At least a denounce to local Port Police against an unknown person can be done…