It's official: Caribbean monk seal is extinct

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

The Caribbean monk seal, also known as the West Indian seal, will be remembered only by drawings. On Friday, the U.S. declared it extinct.


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.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25007277/

:cry:

all so sad :(

they take vows of celibacy, right?

Sorry, I know it's not funny. What is odd though is when a "cute" animal becomes extinct, we all freak out. However, maybe we should be far more concerned about the ugly ones - insects, etc that have essential functions for our environment.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpHDRYuJDmQLpiBPiacShYVL2kEA

Very sad -humans kill anything that moves

These poor creatures were slaughtered because they were thought to be competition for fisherman for many years. Lots of species are going extinct and we don't even hear about it. The Chinese River Dolphin just last year, for one. I keep wondering what I'm going to tell my grandchildren when they see pictures of exotic animals and I have to tell them these animals are all dead now.

and the dodo's and the dinasaurs were the only animals that were discussed as "extinct" . Now, there are hundreds of species that go extinct every year. (probably thousands) Its all because man has found ways to extend its lifetime and multiply exponentially. Until this changes, we shall continue to cause the extinction of the species on earth, including humans.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/extinction/massext/statement_03.html

We are surely in the midst of a mass extinction. Even though it's hard to compare past extinction rates with that of the present, given missing data from the past, we do know how to identify extinction periods: the elevation of extinction rates in those periods are at least a hundred-fold over the slow "background" rate of "normal" extinction.
Of about 6 to 10 million currently existing species, we have still only identified 1 million; we know more about vertebrate species than we do about plants and insects. But for groups that we know well, knowledge of very recent species extinctions -- and for current species, their ranges and the threats to them -- allows us to be certain that extinction rates are comparable to those of the great past extinctions. For example, for birds, of about 10,000 species worldwide, at least 128 have disappeared in the last 500 years, about 1,200 are currently seriously threatened with extinction (all but three from human activities); there is a real prospect of the loss of 500 bird species within this century.
For less well-known groups, we must use inference. We know there is a rough relationship between the area of a patch of habitat and the number of species it will contain. Since habitat destruction is the leading cause of endangerment and extinction, and we have data on the rate of habitat destruction, we can estimate rates of extinction in some cases. Introduced species -- those who migrate to a new area -- are the second leading cause of endangerment and extinction. Information on the rate of species introduction and the nature of the impacts of introduced species on native species and ecosystems allows inferences about extinction rates. The evidence all points to a global tragedy with a profound loss of biodiversity.

It's not nice to fool Mother Nature?

We are so busy denying global warming, we don't have time to worry about extinction.

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short it is assured to be.

:cry: