Cansado Local Customs

Many fishermen sont respect nature and their nets catch an very small amout of still existing seals.
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.