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Mediterranean Monk Seal |
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WORLD DISTRIBUTION & POPULATION
Mediterranean monk seals were spreading all over the coasts in the Mediterranean basin including Black Sea and in the Atlantic along the coasts from Portugal to Senegal in the west Africa until the beginning of 20th century represententing a population in the order of thousands.
However, this rare marine mammal declined very fast in its distribution range due to "hunting" in the first half of 20th century. And during the second half of the 20th century, habitat destruction (both degradation and fragmentation) and diminishing of fish stocks due to over-fishing, monk seals continued to decline. Mediterranean monk seals today exist only along the coasts of Turkey, Greece, Mauritania and Madeira islands with a population in the range between 450-550. The population in Mauritania represents the true Monachus monachus colony with a compact healthy population living on the open beaches. However, monk seals in the eastern Mediterranean had to prefer living isolated in very small groups or even alone.
Today, Mediterranean seals survive in two main regions separated from each other;
1. Atlantic population (Mauritania coasts in West Sahara and Maderia Islands of Portugal)
2. Mediterranean population (Greece and Türkiye)
MONK SEALS IN TURKIYE
The biggest population in the world exists in the Aegean Sea. Responsibilities of Greece and Türkiye are huge as well as Portugal and Mauritania for the continued survival of the species in the world.
Türkiye plays an important role for the protection of monk seals Monachus monachus as world heritage.
It is estimated bit less than 100 monk seals while there are 32 to 42 monk seals individually identified through the field studies by different researchers in Türkiye. Considering the world population, this number refers an important proportion.
Mediterranean monk seals show interrupted distribution ranges along Turkish coasts instead of a continuous distribution range.
Monk seals in Türkiye exist in the following coastal segments;
1. In the Sea of Marmara; Marmara Islands, Mola Islands and northern coasts of Kapıdağ Peninsula,
2. In the Aegean coasts; coast between Gelibolu Peninsula (on the Aegean side) and Behramkale as well as coast between Yeni Foça and Datça,
3. In the Mediterranean; coast between Datça and Kemer, coast between Alanya and Taşucu (Cilician coasts) as well as coast between Hatay Samandağ and Syrian border.
Breeding regularly occurs while monk seal deaths are also observed along in several parts of Turkish coasts.
HABITATS
Mediterranean seals lives "along the remote and untouched coasts that have no urban development, or coasts difficult to reach by man or far away from human activities, and rocky/cliff coasts preferably having coastal caves or caverns for breeding and/or resting purposes" and it is directly affected from deterioration of habitats.
On the other hand, it is not possible to state monk seals do not exist in the coasts other than above referred coastal types such as beaches or inhabited coasts in Türkiye. It is known that Mediterranean monk seals go out of the desolate, rocky beaches and for some time widens their circulation area especially for foraging and also it is known that they drop around sandy or pebble beaches or an estuary of a river.
Yet, primary habitat of Mediterranean monk seal is remote and untouched coasts. As they are large marine mammals, they don’t survive in narrow habitats. This species can only breed safely in the case of existence of a coastal segment in optimum sizes.
MORPHOLOGY
Mediterranean monk seal is a large marine mammal and its length varies between 2-3 meters and its weight changes between 200-300 kg. roughly. Not longer than 0.5 cm., hairs cover the skins of adult seals intensly. When they are seen swimming on the sea surface, the most outstanding feature is huge head, long whiskers and coal-like black eyes. There is no huge difference in terms of weight and size between males and females, however, they have characteristic colour distinction. The large size is easily recognized when they are observed lying on shore. There are fore fins on both side of their body and at rear there are back fins in two parts.
Male: There is a distinct white patch on abdomen while its overall color is nearly
black or dark brown. Size & shape of white area on abdomen vary
among individuals.
Female: Top is light grey or dark grey and underpart from neck to tail is paler
or nearly white colour. Moreover, on the waist there are scratches made by
males during copulation.
Pup: New born has nearly 80-90 cm length and 20 kg. weight.
In abdomen region, a white birthmark is seen without exception
and its body is covered with glossy and longer black hairs of
1-1.5 cm. When it is nearly 2 months old, it begins to change
its fur (moulting) and in 2-3 months long black hairs of pups are
replaced with short and glossy grey hairs.
Drawings ©Eduardo Saiz
BEHAVIOUR and BREEDING
Mediterranean monk seals are very timid and are less social animals when compared with other fin-footed species. East Mediterranean individuals that also exist in our Turkish coasts live very scattered and they rarely come together. The researchers in Türkiye sometimes observe 2-4 seals wandering together and hardly ever this number increases to 7-8 seals. Like many of their characteristic feature, there isn’t much information about their behavior. There are some assumptions that, time to time, Mediterranean monk seals come together and spread out again. Adult males sometimes keep a territory and continue to live in a selected local territory.
Females are more wanderer than the males and in breeding periods, they don’t abandon the breeding cave and vicinity. Young seals can sometimes go to far regions. It is supposed that female Mediterranean monk seals take very long ways so as to mate with males and then they leave territory of males after mating. Copulation occurs in the sea. It is supposed that female seals reach the sexual maturity at the age of 4-5 years. After the period of 10-11 months of pregnancy, the female Mediterranean monk seals give birth a pup every year or two years. Therefore, breeding rate of Mediterranean monk seals is low and therefore population is very low. Birth takes place along inhabited coasts and at the end of a cave in which there is air, or in rocky beach that waves cannot reach easily or on a rocky platform. The mother suckles the pup nearly for 4 months with her milk in a cave on the platform. Mediterranean monk seals are surely in need of land to give birth to her pup and bring them up and especially they need coastal caves for breeding.
FORAGING
Mediterranean monk seals are carnivorous and this is the common feature of fin-feet animals. Octopuses, fish, lobster that it hunts are among its food. When it hunts its prey, sometimes it takes them out of the water. In order to kill prey and eat it in small pieces, seals shake their head to right and left swiftly. Monk seals eat the piece left in mouth and catches the remaining piece by swimming after it. It continues in the same way till pray is eaten fully. As the Mediterranean monk seals are mammals, they have lungs and make respiration with air. In sea, they dive into the bottom by using the air that they take on surface. Mediterranean monk seals usually dive for 5-10 minutes and surface again to breath.
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Mediterranean monk seals are known as shallow water divers compared with other fin-footed animals. It is known that the deepest dive around 100 meters. From time to time, they are known to take fish from the artisanal fishermen's nets. This situation causes competetion which may result in deliberate killing of monk seals by artisanal fishermen.
CLASSIFICATION
Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus belongs to subordo Pinnipedia in the animal kingdom. In Pinnipedia (=fin-footed), monk seals are within the "true seals" family and they live only along Mediterranean coasts and on west African coasts and Madeira Islands in the Atlantic in the world. The systematic classification diagram, which includes the total 34 pinnipedia species in the world, is given below. Hawaiian monk seal Monachus schaunslandi, also considered an endangered species according to IUCN, have a population of around 1.500 and survives in the Hawaiian islands in the Pacific Ocean. Carribean monk seal Monachus tropicalis, one of the 34 Pinniped species, unfortunately disappeared in its range with the last confirmed sighting in 1952. Therefore, now there are 33 pinnipeds left in the world.
REASONS FOR ITS EXTINCTION
You are to wait for months to see Mediterranean monk seals nowadays; but in 1950s it was seen even in the Strait of Istanbul and even they were breeding here. It is a very tragic event when considered that in life span of a human, the Mediterranean monk seals are about to be extinct. In the world, the predator of the other seal species are marine animals for example, killer whales, leopard seals, sharks, polar bears and jackals.
Well, who is the enemy of the Mediterranean monk seal living in our seas? What a pity that the reasons for the extinction are not the natural factors. The only enemy of the Mediterranean monk seal is human. The human greed acting against nature makes Mediterranean monk seal and valuable coasts become diminishing or even extinct. This type of human behaviour occurs as a result of selfish attitude of human being as his natural characteristics.
When it is said human, it means that greed and ambition hidden in human activities related with money; spreading along pristine coasts, construction of new roads that facilitate coastal developments, approval of tourism projects in natural bays, marine pollution, deliberate killing of seals (in the past in the form of hunting for their skin and fat), illegal fishing especially by means of trata, purse seiners and trawlers are among the destructive nature of human being. Unfortunately, monitoring of these illegal or unplanned activities are not supervised properly in most cases.
The extinction of the Mediterranean monk seal doesn’t take root from one problem. The five factors play role for the extinction of this rare species along Turkish coasts.
How do these factors contribute the extinction process?
1. Deterioration of Coastal Habitats:
The most important reason for the decrease in the number of Mediterranean monk seal or its extinction is the deterioration of coastal habitats. The habitats of the monk seals are untouched and remote coasts that still keep their natural form. In Türkiye, some of such pristine areas have been gradually declining. As the roads are opened along such coasts and construction of the secondary houses or touristic development destroy the natural characteristics and pecualirity of coasts, such remote coastal areas are left by monk seals.
Moreover; this negative factor not only affects the Mediterranean monk seal but also the arcaeologic sites that has a history of thousands years belonging to ancient Ions, Phrigs, Lycians and Carias along Anatolian coasts. Besides, this factor causes the natural landscape to be deformed, devastates the fertile agricultural areas and corrupts historical/cultural values.
Mediterranean monk seals live in the desolate coastal areas where there are no human activities, which are generally rocky and demonstrate wavy geo-morphologies and are mainly state-owned lands.
However, state-owned lands are sold or rented for development or tourism purposes thus there is nearly no room left for wild life including endangered fish, sea birds, sea turtles or monk seals. Besides, it is thought provoking to let the state-owned coastal lands, that are the common heritage of 72.000.000 people in the country, be housed & developed through an unplanned construction & development process, sacrifying also valuable olive and orange yards and other agricultural fields on which hundreds thousands of local people are dependent.
2. Overfishing and / or illegeal fishing:
Marine products consist of foods of the seals. The fish stock has been decreasing largely because of illegal and/or over fishing methods ( trawlers, tratas, purse-seiners, dynamite fishing, spear fishing with scuba dive or torch). As a result of this, both seals foraging in the shallow seas and the small scale (artisanal) fishermen are affected very negatively; the seals can not have enough food which shall have direct effect on the physology and breeding of the animals and the coastal fishermen suffer from lower incomes and their life standards drop.
Unless a solution is found to this problem, both the seals (and the other animals on top of the food web) will become extinct and people will have to buy fish for very high prices. Moreover; there will come such days that we cannot find fish and this is the devastation of the marine ecosystem.
3. Deliberate killing:
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Due to the decrease in fish stock, the competition between the seals and the small fishermen- as they are hunting in the same waters- has been ascending. The small fishermen may sometime show great reactions even in case of small losses resulting from monk seals because they are suffering from poor incomes.
The artisanal fishermen dare to kill the seal when met in sea because they become out of patience. Now, who is the guilty; the fishermen who kill the seal or the seal that take fish from the fishermen’ net to survive? Both of them aren’t guilty. In fact the guilty is the illegal trawlers and purse-seiners and also competent bodies that are insufficient to supervise the illegal and over fishing.
4. Disturbance in monk seal caves (touristic dives, entrance to caves etc.):
The key places where monk seals survive (breed, rest or forage) are the coastal caves whose entrance is from the sea. In the recent years, seal caves have been disturbed under the tourism pressure and many caves are abondoned by the seals because of the disturbance given by touristic diving.
Cave diving activities are organized by the diving firms especially after 1990's in Turkiye. Caves are visited to show monk seals in their caves mainly with u/w entrance, hence, caves may be abandoned by seals due to disturbance. Although it is banned according to the relevant regulation; some diving firms deliberately or arrogantly guide tourists to dive into caves especially in Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye, Kaş and Alanya areas with lack of proper control.
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5. Marine and coastal pollutions:
As a result of the marine pollution specifically the pollution in habitat of monk seals, seals gradually reduce using their habitats which may finally result in abondonement. Actually we rarely face with this problem in the country yet it is potentially dangerous. It is stated that there is also some heavy metal accumulation in Mediterranean monk seals proven by the previous scientific research.
The followings can be given as the examples of the effect of pollution on the species: Gümüşlük Çavuş Island, one of the important seal habitat, an oil pollution occured in 1996. In Sinop Inceburun Cape during a field rGüçlüsoy H., C.O. Kıraç, Y. Savaş and N.O.Veryeri. 2004. "Status of the Mediterranean Monk Seal, Monachus monachus (Hermann, 1779) in the Coastal Waters of Turkey. E.U. Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences 21 (3-4): 201–210." esearch, land based pollution were observed (nylon bags, ropes etc.) and though it is rare, it was also observed that ropes or cloth pieces curl the head and neck of the seals. The oil spill happened in Çavuş Island, Bodrum SW Türkiye, affected the habitat of the seals and the tightly curling of the rope around the head of the monk seal named "dişi korsan" in Foça are examples of pollution factor. However, pollution is not a priority threat as the afore mentioned problems.
Source:
Kıraç, C.O., Y. Savaş ve H. Güçlüsoy. 1998. Akdeniz fokunun Monachus monachus Önemi ve Türkiye'de Korunması. SAD-AFAG Yayınları. Eylül 1998, Ankara. 21 sayfa + anket. (Importance of Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus and its protection in Turkey. SAD-AFAG Publications. September 1998. Ankara. 21 pages + questionnaire. Original in Turkish).
Güçlüsoy H., C.O. Kıraç, Y. Savaş and N.O.Veryeri. 2004. "Status of the Mediterranean Monk Seal, Monachus monachus (Hermann, 1779) in the Coastal Waters of Turkey. E.U. Journal of Fisheries & Aquatic Sciences 21 (3-4): 201–210."
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