on January 16, 2004
The largest Mediterranean monk seal colony can be found on Mauritania's Atlantic seaboard. At the Cape Blanc peninsula the seals live along a stretch of just a few kilometers in three large surf caves. Together with the Spanish conservation organisation Isifer Euronatur has started a project with the aim of protecting this population which has drawn a lot of international attention. It is not the West African coastal fishermen who pose a threat to the seals but the industrial fleets of trawlers in the nets of which the seals drown. In the early summer of 1997 this entire colony almost perished as a result of the occurrence of a toxic algae.
SOS on Mauritanias seal coast
More than 200 Mediterranean monk seals on the 'Seal Coast' of Mauritania and the Western Sahara were wiped out by a toxic algae. The poison was transmitted through the food chain and eventually reached the seals, leading to the disaster. The world's largest monk seal colony now consists of a mere 50 to 70 individuals. Emergency measures were taken immediately - with support also received from Euronatur - to save the remaining seals. While the situation has eased a bit the seals' deaths have made it quite clear that the survival of the world's rarest seal species is hanging by a thread.
