“Monk seal and fisheries: Mitigating the conflict in Greek seas” LIFE05NAT/GR/000083
species’ biology, was the creation of a monk seal tissue bank containing >2,200 preserved tissue samples of various types from more than 140 individual seals from all over Greece. Several samples have already been used for diagnostic or research purposes, while the rest, on the basis of a standard agreement with MOm, are available to the scientific community. Conclusions: In 1996 knowledge of Mediterranean monk seal biology and ecology was extremely scant and rudimentary. Advancement in knowledge obtained during this period – undisputedly a great achievement of the 1996 Strategy ‐ is not only intrinsically valuable because it created the foundations of monk seal science – much needed in Greece as elsewhere ‐ that were previously inexistent; it also clarified what knowledge still needs to be collected which is essential to conserving the species, while allowing to relegate questions related to basic science, having a more indirect relevance to conservation, to lower priority levels. Research has been one of the fields in which most of the progress was achieved as far as the implementation of the 1996 Strategy is concerned, perhaps because the involved organisations, in spite of the inherent difficulties in studying such a rare and elusive marine mammal, were able to proceed at their own pace without the disadvantage of the obstructive interactions with institutions, organisations and stakeholders involved in management and conservation matters. Surprisingly, most scientific contributions came from NGOs rather than from academia, contradicting expectations in a nation having such a large contact surface with the marine environment, endowed with such a rich and intriguing marine fauna, and with a zoological tradition dating back no less than to Aristotle.
5. Rescue and rehabilitation of sick, wounded or orphan animals
In 1996, the National Strategy called for: “An additional factor of population decline is mortality of wounded, sick, or orphan new‐born animals. Even though, the existing data do not allow assessing the significance of this factor, the status of the species makes responding to such incidents necessary. The rescue, treatment and rehabilitation of such individuals under specific and strict veterinary, biological and zootechnical conditions is being already performed successfully. Furthermore, under such conditions, data relative to the development, physiology, parasitology, virology, bacteriology, behaviour, veterinary care and release procedures can be collected, while this is not possible in the wild. Additionally, knowledge related to holding the species in captivity will be essential for the conservation of the species in cases of emergency (catastrophes, epidemics, breeding in captivity). Lastly, it should be noted that this measure has a significant indirect effect in the sensitisation of the public, especially of the local people. ”However, the evident ultimate goal of such a programme, namely the release of animals in their natural habitat and their conservation, makes the effective implementation of the other measures imperative and should not be considered independently from them.”
The 1996 Strategy rightly emphasized the value of rescue and rehabilitation of individual seals to ensuring that as many individuals as possible are recovered and secured in the gene pool of an already small population, and to develop skills for providing veterinary care to monk seals, which may become crucially important in case of catastrophic events. Throughout the 1996 ‐ 2007 period, MOm’s Rescue and Rehabilitation Team operated continuously and rescued and provided first aid in situ to 24 individual monk seals reported and found stranded (i.e. orphan, wounded, sick, etc.) at any location within Greece. Three more were found in 2008, reaching a total of 27 (Table 6, Fig. 3). Of these, 15 were rehabilitated and released (and another
National Strategy and Action Plan for the Conservation of the Mediterranean Monk Seal in Greece, 2009‐2015 Page 32 Report on evaluating the past and structuring the future MOm/Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal