Monk Seal Latest News
23rd November, 2009

Monachus Guardian published


2401contJust published: the November 2009 issue of The Monachus Guardian, the biannual electronic journal focusing on the Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals. The site can be accessed at <http://www.monachus-guardian.org>

This issue features news and articles by some 30 authors from 13 countries from across the range of the genus, from Hawaii to Mauritania, Turkey to Spain, Madeira to Greece.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE:

Guest Editorial: Monk seals and fisheries need attention, education and cooperation, by Trisha Kehaulani Watson.

International News: Quebec workshop builds Med-Pacific links, but will action ever follow?…

Hawaiian News: Short-lived freedom for KP2…

Mediterranean News: Greece: Orphaned, newborn monk seal rescued at Kefalonia… Madeira: Young seal chooses busy Funchal as home… Mauritania: Reaching the 50-pup mark at Cabo Blanco… Turkey: Monk seals monitored at Karaburun Peninsula…

Cover Story: Tracking Artemis: Making sense out of a young seal’s death, by Panagiotis Dendrinos & Emily Joseph.

In Focus I: Progressive re-colonization of monk seal resting and reproduction habitats as the result of strict protection, by Pablo Fernández de Larrinoa, Hamdi M’Barek, Moulaye Haye, Miguel Ángel Cedenilla, Mercedes Muñoz, Ana Maroto & Luis Mariano González.

In Focus II: Monk seal sightings in Italy move to the central Tyrrhenian sea, by Giulia Mo.

Perspectives I: Tackling the conflict between seals and fisheries in Greece: an end or a beginning? by Stella Adamantopoulou and Vangelis Paravas.

Perspectives II: Mallorca’s lone seal: the 2009 follow-up, by Antoni Font and Joan Mayol.

Letters to the Editor: Seals of Coincidence, by Professor Keith Ronald… and Mediterranean monk seal encounters – Dos and Don’ts, by Marianna Psaradellis…

Recent Publications.

The current and back issues of The Monachus Guardian are also available from the Monk Seal Library <http://www.monachus-guardian.org/library.htm>.

20th November, 2009

Hawaii’s famous white sandy beaches ‘are shrinking’

Press Watch, Telegraph.co.uk, November 16, 2009

Hawaii’s famous white sandy beaches are shrinking, geologists have warned.

They said that more than 70 per cent of beaches on the island of Kauai are eroding while Oahu has already lost a quarter of its sandy shoreline.

The islands have been experiencing a steady historical climb in sea levels dating back to the 19th century but the problem is likely to get significantly worse in coming decades as global warming causes sea levels to rise more rapidly. [...]

The vanishing sands could ultimately decimate Hawaii’s economy. Tourism is the largest employer, with visitors spending more than $11 billion (£6.6 billion) a year.

It will also mean many animals and plans losing important habitats, including the Hawaiian monk seal and green sea turtles. [...]

Full story

16th June, 2009

Endangered monk seals to have Critical Habitat on Main Hawaiian Islands

Press Watch — Environment News Service, June 11, 2009

A Hawaiian monk seal pulls out of the ocean and flops down at one end of Sandy Beach, on Oahu’s southeast shore, far from the surfers at the other end. [...]

The half-ton marine mammal is one of only about 1,200 individuals still alive today. But new habitat protections that the federal government will declare Friday could bring endangered Hawaiian monk seals back from the brink.

NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service will designate critical habitat for endangered Hawaiian monk seals in the main Hawaiian Islands and expand criticial habitat that already exists in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

→ Continue reading Endangered monk seals to have Critical Habitat on Main Hawaiian Islands