Action Plan for Atlantic Monk Seal

Countries with long history of disagreement come together to save an endangered species. Special Areas of Conservation for Mediterranean Monk Seal are pivotal to success.

The Eastern Atlantic population of the Mediterranean monk seal is found in Morocco, Mauritania, Spain and Portugal. Morocco and Mauritania have a long-standing border dispute. Spain and Portugal, well, they never have really seen eye to eye on much. So the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the four countries during the Western African Talks on Cetaceans and their Habitat (WATCH) is historic on many levels.

The signing comes two years after the Action Plan was approved by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) but cooperative efforts did not wait for either the approval of the CMS or for the MoU to be signed. In 2005, a survey of areas of the Atlantic coast of Africa between the known colony at Cabo Blanco and the city of Dakhla, initiated by CBD-Habitat of Spain, was carried out in conjunction with Moroccan and Mauritanian researchers, using the IFAW research vessel Song of the Whale.

The disappointing but not surprising news was that no new colonies of monk seals were found. The good news was that the trip reinforced in the minds of government officials the importance of protecting potential habitat. This has made the primary objective, the creation of a Network of Special Areas of Conservation for the Monk Seal (SACMS) more readily embraced by the governments involved.

The Mediterranean monk seals has not done well in captivity so habitat protection may be the most important step that can be taken for the species.