Guardians of the monk seal - 生態環境討論

It's still cool at five in the morning.
Ahmet "Charlie" Orhan steers his small boat across the glassy Mediterranean
waters, glowing pink in the early morning light. He's heading for his fishing
nets, laid the night before just off the rocky shoreline, and now hopefully
full of fish.

All around the Mediterranean, thousands more fishermen are similarly fetching
the night's catch. But although the scene is timeless, today is a special day
for Charlie and the other fishermen from the small town of Aydincik, Turkey.
Today the governor will open the new shop of their fishery cooperative — the
latest achievement in ongoing work that's giving the fishermen, and the
endangered Mediterranean monk seal, a better chance for survival.

Charlie is the archetypal fisherman. With skin browned by a life in the sun
and bright sparkling eyes, he's a mine of knowledge about the local marine
environment.

And like artisanal fishermen around the world, he's concerned about declining
numbers of fish.

"In the 1980s, there were so many fish," he says. "But now we don't see the
same number or variety."

The culprits are trawlers. These boats, which come from bigger cities and
whose huge nets indiscriminately catch everything that crosses their path,
are not supposed to fish closer than 3 miles from shore. The inshore area is
reserved for artisanal fishermen like Charlie — locals who set a small
number of nets to supply their town with fish.

But as they have fished out the deeper water, trawlers have — illegally —
come closer and closer to shore over the past 20 years.

"We've always had the same number of fishermen in Aydincik," says Ahmet Ali
Safak, head of Aydincik's fishery cooperative, "but we never saw any decrease
in fish until the trawlers and other large fishing boats started to come."

Fewer fish is bad news for fishermen. It's also bad news for the Mediterranean
monk seal.

These shy animals once lived in colonies along the coasts of the Black Sea,
the Mediterranean, and the Atlantic Ocean from Portugal to Senegal.
But today they are one of the rarest mammals in the world. Only 500 remain,
scattered between Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania,
and the Madeira Islands. Those in Greece and Turkey are restricted to islands
and remote coastlines, living either alone or in groups of 2–3.

"Monk seals prefer undisturbed rocky areas with caves," explains Yalcin Savas,
Head of Conservation at SAD-AFAG, a Turkish group that works with WWF on monk
seal conservation issues. "The caves are particularly important for young
seals. It's here that they are born, safe from storms and other dangers.
Here too they begin to explore and receive training from adult seals. As the
Mediterranean coast has become built up and polluted from industrial shipping,
monk seals have lost much of their habitat."

Hunting and habitat loss were the initial causes of their decline.
A more recent problem is food shortages.

"We have evidence that the seals suffer from osteoporosis, a disease that
weakens the bones," says Yalcin. "This indicates that they probably suffer
from a chronic lack of food."

Monk seals eat octopus, cuttlefish, and fish — the same seafood that people
like. This puts them in direct competition with fishermen for the same limited
food supply.

"The declining fish stocks hurt the monk seals in several ways," says Yalcin.
"They suffer from starvation and reduced breeding success, and also, some
fishermen kill the seals in retaliation for 'stealing' fish from their nets.
On top of this, young monk seals sometimes become trapped in fishing nets and
drown."

Ironically, this conflict is now working to help both survive. Since 1995,
Aydincik's fishermen have been working with SAD-AFAG and WWF to protect the
monk seal and at the same time improve their livelihood.

One part of the work is to increase fish stocks and protect monk seal habitat.
The fishermen and SAD-AFAG scientists have together created two no-fishing
zones around monk seal breeding caves, and two more have been proposed.

"Our research has shown that fish stocks are already increasing in and around
the no-fishing zones," says Yalcin.

"I can see this — the fish are getting bigger and there are more," agrees
Charlie. "And we've only just started!"

A second part of the work is to keep trawlers out of artisanal fishing areas.

"Normally the coast guard would be responsible for this," says Yalcin. "But
in Aydincik there's a gap in the system."

To overcome this, SAD-AFAG and WWF have provided the fishery cooperative with
a patrol boat.

"We can't arrest illegal fishermen," explains Omer Demiryurek, the proud
volunteer captain of the boat. "But we prepare reports for the marine police
who can then take action. We also encourage people in the area to report any
illegal fishing activities."

The patrol boat is proving an effective deterrent — although trawlers still
come close to shore, it happens less often now.

The third part of the work is being celebrated today: the official opening
of the fishery cooperative's new shop.

Cooperatives are a key part of SAD-AFAG's work. Jointly owned by the local
fishermen, they pay a fair price for the fish, and then sell it on to
customers. This gives the fishermen a more stable source of income —
without a cooperative they have to sell the fish to outside dealers, who
don't always pay. In addition, cooperatives give the fishermen more strength,
for example to lobby for reforms such as banning undesirable fishing
practises.

Charlie and other motivated fishermen have been working since 2002 to revive
Aydincik's fishery cooperative, which had been idle for some years after
management problems. With help from WWF and SAD-AFAG, the cooperative cleared
the debt owed by the previous management and bought a new deep freezer.
The shop has been redesigned and repaired, and is now ready for business.

At 11.30, the fishermen and their families have gathered for the opening
ceremony in front of the shop, opposite Aydincik's small harbour. With the
sun blazing and the temperature now at 40oC, everyone is sheltering in the
shade of the few trees. The ceremony is short — it's far too hot for long
speeches. The governor and mayor say a few words and then the ribbon is cut
and everyone surges in to have a look.

But despite the simplicity of the ceremony, it's a significant day for the
fishermen. They are full of thanks to SAD-AFAG and WWF for the support they
have received, and deservedly proud of what they have achieved. They're also
very happy about the recognition they're getting from the mayor and governor.

"We are only a small town," says Ahmet. "But our fishermen are helping to
save the marine environment, and more and more people know about this.
I am sure we will succeed."

They are also enthusiastic about the future —
both theirs and the monk seal's.

"With the cooperative, our income and quality of life will go up,"
says Ahmet. "Before, no one knew there was a fish market in Aydincik.
But now people from other towns know they can get fish at any time from
our shop. And with the no-fishing zones, there will be enough fish for us
and the monk seals."

The conservationists are also very happy. "If Turkey and Greece can protect
their monk seals, the species will survive," says Yalcin. "Aydincik's
fishermen — and other fishermen throughout Turkey — are making this happen.
They see that efforts to save the monk seal also directly help them.
They have become true guardians of the monk seal."

And what does Charlie want from the future?

"I've always fought for the environment — if we hurt nature,
we hurt ourselves. I want everyone to think like us, and work together
to protect our world."

* Emma Duncan is Managing Editor at WWF International.

Further information

Foca: a success story
SAD-AFAG and WWF's longest-running project, in Foca in the Aegean Sea, has
been tremendously successful. Working together, the town's fishermen,
SAD-AFAG, and WWF convinced the Turkish government to ban large scale fishery
in Foca in 1992, and to ban beach-seine fishery along Turkey’s Aegean and
the Mediterranean coasts in 2001. A no-fishing zone was established on the
Karaburun Peninsular, and illegal fishing activities were successfully
stopped. As a result, monk seal sightings in the area have increased
five-fold, pups have been born in areas where there had been no births for
many years, and today, monk seals are even sleeping on open beaches.
The fishermen remain active guardians of the seals, reporting activities
such as illegal construction and pollution that threaten the coastal
environment.

Mediterranean monk seals
The Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) is one of the six most-
threatened mammal species in the world. According to recent estimates,
there are about 300 monk seals in the Mediterranean, almost all occurring
in the eastern part. Turkey's Cilician coast, where Aydincik is located,
is home to 24 monk seals.

Mediterranean monk seals favour areas with caves where they live and breed,
and also need a healthy marine environment. In recent years, they have
suffered from a loss of habitat due to urbanization, development of
secondary homes, and from mass tourism. Their marine environment is threatened
by pollution, and their food source is threatened by overfishing.
The survival of the monk seal is intricately linked with the conservation of
a healthy marine and coastal environment.

WWF and SAD-AFAG's work on monk seals
SAD-AFAG (The Underwater Research Society - Mediterranean Seal Research
Group) is a Turkish conservation organization that has been working with
fishermen in Turkey since 1991 to protect the monk seal and at the same time,
help artisanal fishermen. WWF's Mediterranean Programme works with and
supports SAD-AFAG through an EU-funded project. The work is currently being
carried out in two sites along the Turkish coast: the Karaburun Peninsula in
the Aegean (Foca; see above) and the Cilician coast in the Mediterranean
(Aydincik, Mellec, and Kizilliman).

The work has six main areas:
‧ increasing the capacity of local fishermen and help organize them under
cooperatives
‧ establishing no-fishing zones around all monk seal breeding caves in
Turkey
‧ fighting illegal fishing activities
‧ monitoring monk seals and identifying their breeding caves
‧ monitoring the recovery of fish stocks in no-fishing zones
‧ increasing public awareness of monk seal conservation

WWF also works on monk seal conservation in Greece and Mauritania.

Aydincik and the Cilician coast
Located roughly halfway along Turkey's Mediterranean coast, the Cilician
Basin is home to many marine species, most of which are endangered or rare.
In addition to the Mediterranean monk seal, these include loggerhead turtle
(Caretta caretta), green turtle (Chelonia mydas), long-spined sea urchin
(Centrostephanus longispinus), and long-snouted seahorse (Hippocampus
ramulosus). The region also has two globally threatened habitats: fragile
calcareous red seaweed reefs (Lithophyllum species), and meadows of the
endemic seagrass Posidonia (Posidonia oceanica).

Aydincik has been an ancient town of commerce since 2000 BC. The major income
of the 8,000 inhabitants comes from agriculture and artisanal fishing. There
are about 20 fishermen, with 16 boats.

The Mediterranean Sea is one of WWF's Global 200 Ecoregions — a science-
based global ranking of the world's most biologically outstanding habitats
and the regions on which WWF concentrates its efforts.

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前陣子才寫過的 瀕臨絕種的 Mediterranean monk seal 後續發展文
保育大進展!!!

好文章 不過有夠長 下次再慢慢翻 @_@

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Think, talk, feel.
And life will be different.

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