Caribbean monk seal is extinct

Just days before World Oceans Day, the U.S. government declares the Caribbean Monk Seal officially extinct. From MSNBC:

Only seal species to vanish due to human impacts; two other species at risk.

After five years of futile efforts to find or confirm sightings of any Caribbean monk seals — even just one — the U.S. government on Friday announced that the species is officially extinct and the only seal to vanish due to human causes.

"Humans left the Caribbean monk seal population unsustainable after overhunting them," Kyle Baker, a biologist for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, this led to their demise and labels the species as the only seal to go extinct from human causes."

A Caribbean monk seal — the only subtropical seal native to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico — had not been seen for more than 50 years. The last confirmed sighting was in 1952 at Seranilla Bank, between Jamaica and the Yucatan Peninsula...[more]

So, what is--or, sadly, was--a Caribbean Monk Seal?

From Wikipedia:

The Caribbean Monk Seal was a relatively small seal (6-9 feet) with rolls of fat around its neck and brown pelage that faded to a yellow-white color on the stomach. The soles and palms were naked, with the nails on the anterior digits well developed. The males reached a length of about 2.25 meters and weighed up to 200 kilograms. Displaying sexual dimorphism, the females of this species were generally smaller than males.

During his 1493 voyage, Christopher Columbus described the Caribbean Monk Seal as a "sea-wolf." The region was soon colonized, and whatever habitat this species had was lost. People also began exploiting it commercially for its oil, and less frequently, for its meat.

In the United States, the last recorded sighting of this marine mammal occurred in 1932 off the Texas coast. The very last reliable records of this species are of a small colony at Serranilla Bank, in 1952.^[1]

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 that the mammal still exists, but some biologists strongly believe that the sightings are of wandering Hooded Seals, which have been positively identified on archipelagos such as Puerto RicoVirgin Islands. and the Virgin Islands.

A search at the WWF, meantime, returns this:

The species you chose, Monachus tropicalis, is not currently mapped. The reasons for this may include:

• The species is largely or wholly marine
• Due to human influence the species historical range is unknown
• The species is found in captivity
• The species is extinct

News like this is becoming too common. I hadn't heard of the Caribbean Monk Seal until today; many endangered and threatened species go unnoticed until it's too late. So, even though we can't do anything for the Caribbean Monk Seal, I hope you'll take a look at the IUCN red list of threatened species, and learn about what we can do.