newsgroups: sci.bio.conservation From: keating@mail.telepac.pt (keating) Date: 21 Nov 1995 19:31:48 GMT In article <199511140218.VAA02834@beauty.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>, conssub@u.washington.edu says... >> From: >> Date: Mon, 6 Nov 1995 13:25:05 GMT >> >> I am seeking information on the endangered Mediterranean Monk Seal. >> >> How many are left? >> What is the chance that they can be conserved? >> Are there any efforts to help them or keep them in captivity? >> >> Thanks for any help. There are a little population of monk seals in the Portuguese Atlantic island of Madeira. You can contact the "Parque Natural da Madeira" Madeira's Natural Park or the biology department of the Madeira University. I'm sorry but I don't know the names of the people involved in the monk seals protection programs or in its studies
I got this reply from the ...
PARQUE NATURAL DA MADEIRA
29th January 1996
Dear Phil,
Thank you for your letter and your interest in Monk Seals.
I will tell you the situation and the conservation activities which
have been undertaken by the Parque Natural da Madeira on behalf of monk
seals.
In Madeira we have two monk seal colonies, one being at the Nature Reserve of the Desertas Islands (22 nautical miles Southeast Funchal) and another at Ponta da Sao Lourenco, a remote peninsula at Eastern Madeira island.
The Desertas island have been a protected area since 1990, and from 1988 an effective and strict protection of the seals and their habitat has been undertaken. The monk colony living there is slowly recovering and now is estimated at about 14 to 20 seals. There is a station on the Desertas (the only house existing) where three wardens stay for two week periods.
At Ponta de Sao Lourenco, the monk seal habitat has already been surveyed and a big land area has been acquired by the Regional Government in order to build a research station to support the protection of the area. A nature reserve will soon be declared by the government, with the main objective of the monk seal protection.
The decline of the monk seal population in Madeira, and as well all around its range area, was due to the disturbance and killing by fishermen in the competition for the fish on the depleted fish ground, due to overfishing.
The monk seal population of Desertas and Ponta de Sao Lourenco are the only in Portugal and also in the open Atlantic.
Seals there use to rest and breed in caves, and eat fish near the shore and also octopus and cuttlefish.
Apart from Madeira, monk seals are found on the coast of Mauritania (the biggest colony estimated is 150 to 200 seals), the Mediterranean sea, more precisely in Greece, Turkey and on the coast of Morocco.
The total world monk seal population does not exceed 600 animals. The monk seal is one of the 10th most world-wide endangered animal.
In Greece, at the National Park of the Northern Sporades consist a protected area for monk seals, and in Turkey in the Foca region, a conservation programme is being well implemented on behalf of the monk seals.
I hope you find this information helpful, and if you need more information please don't hesitate to contact me.
Yours sincerely,
Henrique Costa Neves.
This page was last updated 7 May 1996.