Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 133, January 2016, pp. 1-29. | Page 16

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will be virtually extinct by 2010 if nothing is done to save them (Johnson, 1988;
Khalaf-von Jaffa, 2009, 2013).
As the fishing grounds begin to collapse under fierce commercial competition,
the seals are faced with a scarcity of food. The hungry animals then tear their
way into fishing nets to obtain their meal. In this vicious circle, fishermen have
come to regard the seal as an enemy which destroys their nets and steals their
fish. Although the seals often get trapped in the nets and drown, the fishermen
usually don‟t hesitate to kill the creature when the opportunity presents itself.
Depressingly frequent reports have revealed that the seals are often the victims
of deliberate cruelty, unjustly held responsible for a sea which is rapidly
becoming exhausted by human greed. Kicked, stoned, shot and dynamited, this
is the price that the monk seal has to pay for our own ecological ignorance
(Johnson, 1988; Khalaf-von Jaffa, 2009, 2013).
The centuries of persecution have also had a profound psychological effect upon
the seals, and they are now literally terrified of human disturbance. Only in
Mauritania have the seals managed to retain their frolicsome nature and their
innocent curiosity towards the few human beings who venture into their
peaceful refuge of sandy beaches and arching caves. Here, undisturbed, the seals
have formed their largest colonies, numbering up to sixty individuals (Johnson,
1988; Khalaf-von Jaffa, 2009, 2013).
Corsica‟s last pair of seals was killed by fishermen in 1976, just eight weeks
before the inaugural ceremonies of a marine sanctuary designed to protect the
animals. The last seals of greater France died on the Isles d‟Hyeres in 1935, and
today the only trace of the monk seal is its depiction in the prehistoric cave
paintings found in the Pyrenees. The seal became extinct in Palestine, Libya,
Syria and Lebanon in the 1950s, helped on its way by war. Up to fifty seals may
survive along the coasts of Algeria, in part because Moslem fishermen still
believe the killing of the animals to be a sin. Further west, small groups of seals
are still found along the shores of Morocco and the nearby Chafarinas Islands
which belong to Spain. Of the Atlantic monk seals, which may differ genetically
from their Mediterranean cousins, the wounded seal that was captured on one of
the Lanzarote Islands in 1983 probably spelled the extinction of the species in the
Canary Islands (Johnson, 1988; Khalaf-von Jaffa, 2009, 2013).

The Name
The precise origins of the monk seal‟s name have long been lost to obscurity and
the flow of time. In Greek mythology the seal was represented as the god
Phokos, son of Poseidon. Several towns and villages were named after the seal
god, and even today the Greek word for seal continues to be phokia.
Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin – Number 133 – January 2016