Gazelle : The Palestinian Biological Bulletin (ISSN 0178 – 6288) . Number 85, January 2009, pp. 1-20. | Page 4

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Evidence suggests that the species was severely depleted during the Roman era.
Following the fall of the empire, a reduction in demand may have allowed the monk seal
to stage a temporary recovery, but not to earlier population levels. Commercial
exploitation peaked again in certain areas during the Middle Ages, effectively wiping out
the largest surviving colonies. Increasingly, survivors no longer congregated on open
beaches and headlong rocks, but sought refuge along inaccessible cliff-bound coasts and
in caves (often with underwater entrances). By the 19th century, however, the seal
slaughter had become a commercial enterprise verging on genocide, and numerous
colonies were becoming extinct. Because of their trusting nature they were easy prey.
Tens of thousands were bludgeoned to death, their skins put on sale in the fashionable
capitals of Europe. Although hunting of the creatures on this scale rapidly became
unfeasible, they never recovered. The massive disruption of two world wars, the
industrial revolution, a boom in tourism and the onset of industrial fishing all contributed
to the Mediterranean monk seal‟s decline. Their numbers may have been reduced by go
per cent in the last seventy years and the species will be virtually extinct by 2010 if
nothing is done to save them.

A Renaissance woodcut of a Mediterranean monk seal (from Guillaume Rondelet, 1554).

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.
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.
Mauritania may represent one of the last truly natural habitats of the monk seal, where the
animals can still be seen basking in the sun or playing with their pups in the gentle surf.
But in the Mediterranean, mass tourism and urbanization have driven the seals away from
Gazelle – Number 85 – January 2009