The Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal

Scientists from the U.S. and Greece are working from opposite sides of the ocean to save the Hawaiian (pictured here) and Mediterranean monk seals. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species has declared both species to be critically endangered. Their relative, the Caribbean monk seal, has already gone extinct.

A study conducted in 2010 led researchers to conclude that one-fifth of the world's vertebrates are threatened wtih extinction. Meet some of the marine vertebrate species that are among the threatened in the Backbone of Biodiversity of Risk image gallery.

Photo of a Hawaiian monk seal on the beach, with the ocean in the background.
Caleb Slemmons, Flickr name TurasPhoto

View Related Ocean Media Content

comment_wrapper_curve_top

Share your comments here.

* When you click submit, your comment will be added to the queue for review and will be published after approval.

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.

More information about formatting options

Type the characters you see in this picture. (verify using audio)
Type the characters you see in the picture above; if you can't read them, submit the form and a new image will be generated. Not case sensitive.

comment_wrapper_curve