Media Watch, Good news/bad news for Hawaiian monk seals, Earthsky.org, 3 August 2010
Jeff Walters is the Hawaiian monk seal recovery coordinator for NOAA Fisheries Service. Walters said that in the isolated northwest Hawaiian islands, the number of monk seals is declining by four percent every year. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that a smaller population of seals on the main Hawaiian islands is growing and thriving, he said.
Jeff Walters: Over the past few years, we’ve had twenty or more seals born in the main Hawaiian islands every year.
Even though the main Hawaiian islands have a much larger human population, the seals are doing better there because they don’t have as much competition for food, or as many predators, said Walters. But, he added, when people try to feed or play with the seals, it runs the risk of “taming” them, which hurts the seal’s chances of surviving in the wild.
Unfortunately, a monk seal was attacked by a Pit Bull earlier today (Friday, July 30) in the Kau region. Reports from the NOAA law enforcement agency say the attack lasted for about a minute until the seal retreated into the ocean. The extent of injury is unknown, and very little information is currently known about this matter. If you have any information (location attack may have taken place, name of dog owner, recent seal sightings, etc.) please contact our monk seal line at 808-756-5961, or email hmmrn@hawaii.edu .
Just published: the June 2010 issue of The Monachus Guardian, the biannual journal focusing on the Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals.
This issue of The Monachus Guardian brings a special focus to the Mediterranean monk seals shot and dynamited in the Eastern Mediterranean since January. What is actually being done to eliminate the single most serious mortality threat confronting the species?
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE:
Editorial: An epidemic of killings.
Hawaiian News: Seal numbers continue to dive…
Mediterranean News: Greece: Alarming numbers of dead seals… Mauritania: Record births at Cabo Blanco… Turkey: Monk seal deaths in the Turkish Aegean… New population size assessment study in the NE Mediterranean…
Cover Story: Markos’ Case: Trauma, treatment, and reflections, by Emily Joseph.
In Focus I: Monk seal killed by dynamite blast in the Aegean, by Anastasia Miliou.
In Focus II: Nefeli’s rehabilitation: methods, results, and challenges, by Emily Joseph.
Perspectives: The world’s two remaining monk seal species: how many different ways are there of being Critically Endangered? by Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara.
Research: Mediterranean monk seal, Monachus monachus, re-sighted along the Israeli coastline after more than half a century, by Aviad Scheinin, Oz Goffman, Mia Elasar and Dani Kerem…
Press Watch, Honolulu Star Bulletin, April 16, 2010
A female monk seal, nicknamed Mikala, was found drowned Tuesday, wrapped in a gillnet off of Bellows Beach.
The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is investigating the apparent drowning of a 9 1/2 -month-old Hawaiian monk seal that was discovered tangled in a gillnet—the sixth such death since 1976.
At 10:26 a.m. Tuesday, the female monk seal, identified by scientists as RA14, was spotted floating off Bellows Beach. Lifeguards discovered the seal wrapped in a monofilament gillnet and pulled her from the water.
Necropsy results determined the seal, nicknamed Mikala, died of an apparent drowning due to the entanglement. [...]
The Conservation and Resources Enforcement Division seized the netting as part of its investigation. It is unknown who owns the net.
Under state law all lay nets must be registered with the Department of Land and Natural Resources. It is unlawful to leave a lay net unattended for more than a half-hour. Nets also must be inspected within two hours after they are set.
Hawaiian monk seals are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Killing one is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $50,000 fine. [...]
Badem, probably the most famous Mediterranean Monk Seal, is back in Turkey after taking herself on a tour of the Greek island of Rhodes during the winter months. [...]
The problem is that Badem is far too happy to be with humans and likes nothing better than to take a break by jumping into a dinghy for forty winks.
This all sounds very delightful, and sure enough, last month she was found in a dinghy near Marmaris, recuperating from her long swim from Rhodes back to Turkey where she likes to spend the summer months.
According to Zafer Kızılkaya, a representative of SAD/AFAG, “she was resting in a dinghy, but it seems some people took advantage of this, and we received reports that some people were kicking her and throwing stones at her. Unfortunately the attitude of many Turkish people is that, when they see an animal like Badem, they want to play with her, but really it’s more like torture. This is quite intolerable.”
Recently released from her temporary confinement in a specially-constructed pen in Gökova Bay, Turkey, orphaned seal Badem wasted little time swimming off to Greece [see New cage built for Badem]. Her first known port of call was the eastern Aegean island of Rhodes, and the popular port of Lindos.
Greek NGO MOm was alerted to the seal’s presence on 21 January 2010 by the Hydrobiological Station of Rhodes. Observers reported the animal displaying a range of unusual behaviours, including resting on small fishing boats in the harbour, and allowing people to pet it.
Following contact and information exchange with their Turkish counterparts SAD-AFAG (which undertook the rescue and rehabilitation of the orphaned seal in association with the SRRC of Pieterburen, the Netherlands), MOm dispatched its own experienced rescue staff to Rhodes in order to assess the situation, liaise with local bodies, and formulate a range of possible actions to deal with the ‘problem’ seal.
Turkish daily Hürriyet has published a gallery of photos on Badem and her new temporary enclosure, funded by businessman Mustafa Koç.
The orphaned monk seal, whose interactions with swimmers and beachgoers have become a source of concern to conservationists, is due again for release. SAD-AFAG, the NGO caring for her, has expressed the hope that she will adapt to the wild, and show less interest in humans.
The new cage built for 'Badem,' a Mediterranean seal, cost 75,000 Turkish Liras. DHA photo
Badem, a Mediterranean seal that was found beached in Didim and had previously undergone many attempts at rehabilitation after being released into the wild in 2006 will now be kept in a special aquarium. The aquarium is in a bay in the popular resort town of Marmaris.
Businessman Mustafa Koç, Badem’s sponsor, had a special aquarium prepared for the seal that cost 75,000 Turkish Liras. In its new aquarium, Badem will get the chance to hunt live fish.
Zafer Kızılkaya, a member of the executive board of the Underwater Research Foundation, or URA, said the seal was very happy in its new aquarium and it would be released into the wild again soon, because it has grown into an adult and will need to mate. [...]
Jeff Walters is the Hawaiian monk seal recovery coordinator for NOAA Fisheries Service. Walters said that in the isolated northwest Hawaiian islands, the number of monk seals is declining by four percent every year. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that a smaller population of seals on the main Hawaiian islands is growing and thriving, he said.
Badem, probably the most famous Mediterranean Monk Seal, is back in Turkey after taking herself on a tour of the Greek island of Rhodes during the winter months. [...]
