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Circumstantial evidence for the presence of monk seals in the West Indies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2009

I. L. Boyd  and
M. P. Stanfield
I. L. Boyd
Affiliation:
Seamark Trust, 165 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 7NA, UK.
M. P. Stanfield*
Affiliation:
Seamark Trust, 165 Woodstock Road, Oxford OX2 7NA, UK.
*
British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK. e-mail: i.boyd@bas.ac.uk
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Abstract

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Based on interviews with 93 fishermen in northern Haiti and Jamaica during 1997 an assessment was made of the likelihood that monk seals survive in this region of the West Indies. Fishermen were asked to select marine species known to them from randomly arranged pictures: 22.6 per cent (n = 21) selected monk seals. This number was significantly (P < 0.001) greater than the number who selected control species (walrus, harbour seal, and sea-lion) that they were unlikely to have observed. However, it was not significantly different (n = 19, P > 0.1) from the number who selected manatees, which are known to occur in the region in small numbers. More than 95 per cent of respondents also identified species that are known to occur commonly in the region. Further questioning of the 21 respondents who selected monk seals suggested that 16 (78 per cent) of them had seen at least one in the past 1–2 years. Those fishermen that were able to provide further descriptions gave information about size and colour that was consistent with many of these seals being monk seals. It is possible that the Caribbean monk seal is not extinct.

Type
Research Article
Information
Oryx , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , October 1998 , pp. 310 - 316
Copyright
Copyright © Fauna and Flora International 1998

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