Caribbean monk seal

Caribbean monk seal
Scientific classification
Phylum:	Chordata
Genus:	Neomonachus

The Caribbean monk seal (Monachus tropicalis), also known as the West Indian seal and sea wolf, was a species of seal that was native to the Caribbean islands and the Gulf of Mexico and they also spread well into the Atlantic Ocean and the east coast of Central America. This animal is believed to be extinct, with the last verified sighting being made in 1952 and later being officially classified as extinct in 2008.

Description[]

Caribbean monk seals had a relatively large, long, robust body, could grow to nearly 2.4 meters (8 feet) in length and weighed 170 to 270 kilograms (375 to 600 lbs). Males were probably slightly larger than females, which is similar to Mediterranean monk seals. Like other monk seals, this species had a distinctive head and face. The head was rounded with an extended broad muzzle. The face had relatively large wide-spaced eyes, upward opening nostrils, and fairly big whisker pads with long light-colored and smooth whiskers. When compared to the body, the animal's foreflippers were relatively short with little claws and the hindflippers were slender. Their coloration was brownish and/or grayish, with the underside lighter than the dorsal area. Adults were darker than the more paler and yellowish younger seals. Caribbean monk seals were also known to have algae growing on their pelage, giving them a slightly greenish appearance, which is similar to Hawaiian monk seals.

Behavior and ecology[]

Historical records suggest that this species may have "hauled out" at resting areas on land in large social groups, typically 20-40 animals, but sometimes up to 100 individuals, throughout its range.

Habitat[]

Caribbean monk seals were found in warm temperate, subtropical, and tropical waters of the Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the western Atlantic Ocean.

Extinction[]

Through the first half of the twentieth century, Caribbean monk seal sightings became much rarer. In 1908 a small group of seals was seen at the once bustling Tortugas Islands. Fishermen captured six seals in 1915, which were sent to Pensacola, Florida, and eventually released. A seal was killed near Key West, Florida in March 1922. There were sightings of Caribbean monk seals on the Texas coast in 1926 and 1932. The last seal recorded to be killed by humans was killed on the Pedro Cays in 1939. Two more seals were seen on Drunken Mans Cay, just south of Kingston, Jamaica, in November 1949. In 1952 the Caribbean monk seal was confirmed sighted for the last time at Serranilla Bank, between Jamaica and Nicaragua.

The final extinction of the Caribbean monk seal was triggered by two main factors. The most visible factor contributing to the Caribbean monk seals' demise was the nonstop hunting and killing of the seals in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to obtain the oil held within their blubber. The insatiable demand for seal products in the Caribbean encouraged hunters to slaughter the Caribbean monk seals by the hundreds. The Caribbean monk seals' docile nature and lack of flight instinct in the presence of humans made it very easy for anyone to kill them. The second factor was the overfishing of the reefs that sustained the Caribbean monk seal population. With no fish or mollusks to feed on, the seals that were not killed by hunters for oil died of starvation or did not reproduce as a result of an absence of food. Surprisingly little was done towards attempting to save the Caribbean monk seal; by the time it was placed on the endangered species list in 1967 it was likely already extinct.

Unconfirmed sightings of Caribbean monk seals by local fishermen and divers are relatively common in Haiti and Jamaica, but two recent scientific expeditions failed to find any sign of this animal. It is possible the mammal still exists, but some biologists strongly believe the sightings are of wandering hooded seals, which have been positively identified on archipelagos such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Possible sightings[]

When Forrest Galante and his crew travels to the Caribbean Islands fishermen that he saw a seal and jumps back into the water in one of the two unexplored small islands. When he and his crew try to use a flying drone with thermal to explore the other island and saw aquatic mammal on the island for mere seconds but escape into the ocean.