The Caribbean monk seal, west Indian seal (Monachus tropicalis), or sea wolf, as early explorers referred to it, was a species of seal native to the Caribbean and now believed to be extinct. The Caribbean monk seals' main predators were sharks and humans. Overhunting of the seals for oil, and overfishing of their food sources is the established reason for the seals extinction. The last confirmed sighting of the Caribbean Monk Seal was in 1952 at Serranilla Bank, between Jamaica and Nicaragua. In 2008 the species was officially declared extinct after an exhaustive five-year search for the seals, conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Marine Fisheries Service. Caribbean Monk Seals were closely related to the Hawaiian monk seals, (Monachus schauinslandi) which live around the Hawaiian Islands, and are critically endangered, and Mediterranean monk seals, (Monachus monachus) which are also critically endangered, an estimated 600 Mediterranean monk seals, and 1,100 Hawaiian monk seals are alive in the wild.
A collection of Caribbean monk seal bones can be found at the Tropical Crane Point Hammock Museum in Key Vaca.
Read more about Caribbean Monk Seal: Physical Appearance, Behavior and Ecology, Reproduction and Longevity, Habitat, History, Sightings
Famous quotes containing the words caribbean, monk and/or seal:
“But now Miss America, World’s champion woman, you take your promenading self down into the cobalt blue waters of the Caribbean and see what happens. You meet a lot of darkish men who make vociferous love to you, but otherwise pay you no mid.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“The monk in hiding himself from the world becomes not less than himself, not less of a person, but more of a person, more truly and perfectly himself: for his personality and individuality are perfected in their true order, the spiritual, interior order, of union with God, the principle of all perfection.”
—Thomas Merton (1915–1968)
“Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.”
—Bible: Hebrew Song of Solomon 8:6.