Sightings
In June 2009, there was a report of a sighting off the island of Giglio, in Italy. On 7 January 2010, fishermen spotted an injured Mediterranean monk seal off the coasts of Tel Aviv, Israel. When zoo veterinarians arrived to help the seal, it had slipped back into the waters. Members of the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center arrived at the scene and tried to locate the injured mammal, but with no success. This was the first sighting of the species in the region since Lebanese authorities claimed to have found a population of 10–20 other seals on their coasts 70 years earlier. In addition, the seal was also sighted a couple of weeks later in the northern kibbutz of Rosh Hanikra.
In April 2010, there was a report of a sighting off the island of Marettimo, in the Egadi Islands off the coast of Italy, near the Province of Trapani.
In November 2010, a Mediterranean monk seal, supposedly aged between 10 and 20, has been spotted in Bodrum, Turkey.
On December 31, 2010, the BBC Earth news reported that the MOM Hellenic Society had located a new colony of seals on a remote beach in the Aegean Sea. The exact location was not communicated so as to keep the site protected. The society was appealing to the Greek government to integrate the part of the island on which the seals live into a marine protected area.
On March 8, 2011, the BBC Earth news reported that a pup seal had been spotted on 7 February while monitoring a seal colony on an island in the southwestern Aegean Sea. Soon after, it showed signs of weakness and it was taken to a rehabilitation centre to try to save it. The aim is to release it back into the wild as soon as it is strong enough.
On June 24, 2011, the Blue World Institute of Croatia filmed an adult female underwater in the northern Adriatic, off the island of Cres and a specimen of unverified sex on June 29, 2012.
Read more about this topic: Mediterranean Monk Seal