seals in prison

Seals In Prison - An adult male Mediterranean monk seal swims through Madeira National Park, home to only three remaining individuals.

Gyaros, Greece A shiny gray dog ​​scrapes the rocks beneath the Aegean Sea for squid, sometimes spattering mercilessly across the surface. Like a labrador retriever the speed of the sea, he runs to the school of small fry in a circle, only relenting when a juicier offer catches his eye.

Seals In Prison

At the end, the young Mediterranean monk seal, missing or full of fish, squirts on the rocks below. February sun.

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As carefree as the pup seems, its species is bound in the battle for survival. The rarest of the 33 species, there are about 600 animals in the wild - a population that can easily change to follow the extinction of the Caribbean seal. The only remaining monk seal is the Hawaiian monk seal, which is on the verge of extinction, with about a thousand animals left. (Read about efforts to save Hawaiian monk seals.

The Mediterranean monk seal, which is found throughout the Mediterranean Sea and parts of the eastern Atlantic and the Black Sea, is now scattered in three separate groups in Mauritania, the Portuguese island of Madeira, and the coast of Greece and Turkey.

Its decline began in the Roman era, when hunters killed many animals for meat, oil and skin. In modern times, the development of coastal areas has swallowed up the habitat of species and forced social animals to generally gather in sea caves. Recently, fishermen have continued to destroy the species due to accidental and deliberate killing, in Revenge for eating fish.

But at Gyaros, a 5-mile nature reserve with a dark past, the seals of Mediterranean monks seem to be making a comeback, thanks to efforts by conservationists to turn the island into a sanctuary.

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The island is uninhabited and largely undeveloped due to its history as a prison and its gun range. Navy. The island is wild and full of sea caves, the perfect habitat for these 700 kg animals, known for their loud barking and sometimes brutal ways. (Watch the video that shows the irresistible charm of the seal.)

In order to attract the conflict here, since 2017, the conservationists have taken the ammunition of the warship that is still Not yet broken. Clearing the sea caves of abandoned nets, which often trap and kill seals; and establish a military surveillance system at the top of the island to resist the invaders.

"The idea is to create a kind of refuge, a safety net, so that the seal can breathe when it is difficult elsewhere," said Christos Papadas, WWF environmental scientist, who leads the project together with the Hellenic Society for Education. and protecting the monk seal, as well as other non-profit organizations and government organizations.

"But this is not just about seals. We don't know what will happen if the ecosystem loses its top predator," Papadas said as he navigated the boat near the coast of Gyaros. As if to emphasize his point, another young seal came out. Nearby, may hunt octopus among the underwater rocks.

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Gyaros is now home to 60 seals, about 10 percent of the world's total, and the species was recently upgraded from Critically Endangered to Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

However, local fishermen do not always welcome the return of seals, as they believe that wildlife conservation efforts are at their expense.

"We don't want to destroy the seals," said Maria Budori, former head of a small fishermen's association on the nearby island of Syros. "We don't want to destroy the seals. "But they have organizations that support them. Who will help us? No one."

And amid the coronavirus, which has ravaged the global fishing industry, the conflict may deepen, experts say.

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Treeless, covered with noisy seabirds and with steep cliffs, Gyaros can be a rocky outcrop - so it's no wonder that the Romans and Byzantines found it an ideal retreat for political dissidents.

In the years after World War II, military authorities designated the island, several hours south of Athens, as a sort of Greek Alcatraz, housing more than 20,000 political opponents. Many incarcerated men and women who suffered brutal conditions carved their names and that they were Detained for how long, the marks can still be seen on the crumbling walls of the prison.

Recently, the Greek Navy has re-used Gyaros as a gun emplacement and detonated the hillside. Countless numbers.

This famous history has been spared the growth of global mass tourism that transformed many of its neighboring islands, such as Mykonos, Andros and Tinos.

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Although most seals live in cooler climates, Hawaiian seals prefer the warm sandy beaches of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Although most seals live in cooler climates, Hawaiian seals prefer the warm sandy beaches of the northwestern Hawaiian Islands.

Although it is still too early to assess Gyaros' impact on the seal population, nearby islanders have reported frequent sightings, and people in parts of the western Mediterranean are reporting sightings for the first time.

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"It is not unusual for a small island to help recover. We've seen it before, and it can be very simple," said Jason Baker, a seal expert and consultant to the Marine Corps, a US government agency.

"As long as they have a place with puppies and a place to eat, they're usually happy." (Read about adding a new branch to the monk family tree.

Most islanders seem in favor of reviving Greece's signature species, but the fishermen are a vocal exception.

"Just this morning, there were two seals chasing my boat to catch my fish. It's hard to live together with them," said Marcos Denaxas, who has been fishing at Gyaros for 75 of his 81 years, "Adding them only makes it more difficult."

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Since Gyaros is a conservation area, the main fishing area around it is closed. For this reason, fishermen on Syros and other nearby islands urge conservationists to prioritize the well-being of the seals over their own, adding to their financial losses.

Fish prices have fallen due to Greece's ongoing economic crisis - and are likely to continue to fall due to the spread of the disease, as more islanders take to the sea to supplement their incomes.

Officials and conservationists say they are aware of the need for Papadas fishermen to contribute to the seal's survival, and say they plan to include them in future ecotourism efforts in Gyaros.

At the same time, these tensions have led to illegal night fishing in the waters around Gyaros, which is part of the reason for the island's sophisticated security system. If the boat violates the three-mile limit, the high-definition camera will lock on and send a feed to the Coast Guard.

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WWF teams set out to catch fishermen in the act and sometimes leave at around 4am in their boats. "It's like a spy game. We know they have people watching us," said WWF field technician Ventouris Mpountouris.

Early in the morning in February, the phones of WWF team members rang frantically as the Gyaros monitoring station reported an intruder. The boat passed a few hundred meters from the sea cave favored by the seal on the north side of the island. In this case, it is a false alarm.

But the fishermen seem determined to continue fishing illegally. "You have to understand that this is our fishing," said a fisherman who spoke to me on condition of anonymity because of the illegal nature of his work. "No seal". We will not stop."

Seals evolved to thrive in the Mediterranean Sea - but it was a very different sea then. (Read about the interesting history of the Mediterranean.)

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First, the seals were never particularly abundant, so they struggled to replace the losses as the human population grew around them. They have never had to travel far from home, so their instinct is not to seek new hunting grounds as their habitat has become one of the busiest seas in the world. (Watch the rescuers release the seals from the line.)

Seals are also vulnerable to disease outbreaks: in 1997, more than 150 Mediterranean seals died of a mysterious virus in Mauritania. This is of particular concern because seals live in three distinct populations, so if one becomes extinct, it could be gone forever.

According to Baker, rising sea levels from climate change have also covered many of the sandbars that seals use for recreation and socializing.

Despite all that, most of those involved in seal conservation remain optimistic about their chances of keeping the species alive.

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"They are incredibly resilient," Baker said. "It's one of those species where if you stop killing them, they might recover."

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