Sea Wolves of Madeira
“I thought ‘Lobo Marinha’ translated as ‘sea wolf’. I was about to be enlightened! ”
SEAL OF APPROVAL
Rosa Pires and Nélio Caires looking out for the endangered Monk Seals
I met with Rosa Pires and Nélio Caires, her Ranger sidekick at Calheta Marina as they returned from a visual check around the waters of Calheta.
Rosa is a marine biologist who’s been working on this case for 24 years, focusing on preserving the Monk Seal population of Madeira. She has, you could say, a zeal for seals!
WHAT’S IN A NAME
My mistake was thinking these rare seals were sea lions! Given that ‘Lobo Marhina’ (Sea Wolf) is the name of the Porto Santo ferry, not to mention the fishing village of Câmara de “Lobos", named after the colony of ‘Sea Wolves’ that once inhabited this sheltered cove, you can see where the confusion arises?
Rosa set me straight! “The animal they were referring to is a Monk Seal, a seriously endangered species with only around 25 individuals living in Madeira waters today.”
A mother Monk Seal looks after her precious pup on a deserted beach on the Desertas Islands.
“Why were they referred to as ‘Sea Wolves?” I asked Rosa, determined to get to the bottom of the Monk Seal misnomer.
“When the first explorers came to Madeira they saw an animal that made a sound like a wolf, a sort of howl,” she told me. That’s where the ‘Lobos’ connection came in.
“And,” she went on, “when they were out of the water, their thick neck-folds looked like the hooded cassock of a monk.” I was beginning to get the picture! The final facet was that these bashful creatures favour the sanctuary of caves, similar to hermit monks of the past.
CLOSEST RELATIVES
“Their closest living relatives today are bears, weasels, raccoons, skunks, and pandas”
Rosa continued, “to be genetically concise, the Monk Seal is a ‘true seal’ whereas the sea lion is essentially an otter. All of these animals were once land-based (ok, it was around 50 million years ago), and their closest living relatives today are bears, weasels, raccoons, skunks, and pandas. Isn’t it amazing how the natural world evolves?
“There are many different species of seals throughout the world,” Rosa went on, “but this is one of the rarest. There are only perhaps 700 Monk Seals worldwide ranging from the Mediterranean to Hawaii. The Caribbean branch of the family is now extinct.”
PROTECTION RACKET
When Madeira was first explored and exploited, the hapless Monk Seal was hunted for its skin and fat. It is estimated that there were around 2,000 animals around the Madeiran islands in the 15th century. By the 20th, the species stood on the brink of extinction! “At the end of the 1980s,” Rosa told me, “There were only 6 - 8 surviving individuals surviving around Madeira’s coasts.”
In the 1990s, a programme to protect the seals got underway, mainly around the Desertas Isles, 50 km southeast of the main island of Madeira which was then designated as a reserve to help protect and increase the population.
PARK RANGERS
Part of the strategy was to set up a Park Rangers programme under the ‘Parque Natural da Madeira’. Today there are 35 rangers in all, three of the team at all times occupying a station that has been built on Grande Desertas Island. The Rangers monitor the animals and enforce the protected area. Visitors can only visit for the day and it’s strictly monitored.
EASY RELATIONSHIPS
Working with the local fishermen is a key element of the Ranger’s role. At one time the fisherman used gill nets and it was easy for the Monk Seals to get trapped in them. If they didn’t die, they would destroy the nets. So it was an uneasy relationship between the fisherman and the seals. The rangers monitor the area for illegal fishing, talking with fishermen, explaining the need to create a reserve for the seals which also increases the abundance of fish and therefore benefits everyone.
SEA TOURISM
I’ve been on a few dolphin & whale-watching tours in my time here and asked Rosa about the impact of tourism and how it might be affecting marine mammals.
“We work closely with these companies,” Nélio said. “The captains do a good job of making the public aware. They even stop to pick up plastic waste on the seas. Marine litter is a huge problem and unfortunately, the public doesn’t have a feeling about its dimension.”
CAVE LIFE
“Can you go and see the Monk Seals anywhere,” I asked, naively thinking it would be a bit like a ‘seal safari’.
“We never go near the seals and avoid any kind of contact,” Rosa emphasised. “Our monitoring is done mostly via remote cameras that we place in the caves when the animals are away. In this way, we can keep an eye on them without causing any disturbance or contact.”
The entrances to the caves are mostly by underwater tunnels so the team approach, using sensors to check if there are any Monk seals present, and if not they set up the cameras. The cameras capture a photo once per hour. “Their colouring and scars identify the seals. The photos also give some insight into how long the seals stay in the cave to rest (at one point they recorded a monk seal resting for 18 hours)”
HIDDEN TREASURE
I asked if they ever found any hidden treasure in the caves. “The only treasure we find is the ‘shit’ of the seals!” she replied. “We take it back for analysis and it’s very useful to gauge the health of the animals and what they are eating.”
As for us tourists, how can we help the cause?
“It’s all about awareness,” Rosa told me. “Madeira offers a lot of opportunities to see marine wildlife. The impulse is to get close for the best views but if the wildlife is constantly disturbed, it will soon have an impact.”
In New Zealand, with a long history of whale-watching, they saw the breeding rates reduced after some decades and have proven it was due to human pressure. “We don’t want the Monk seals to get close to people at all,” Rosa told me. “They could become partially domesticated. Soon, they will look for people and become dependent on such contact and can cause accidents with humans since interaction with the monk seals is mainly with the mouth.” In other words, they’ll bite!
SMART TOURISM
Regarding the dolphins and whales so abundant in the waters of Madeira, Rosa and the Ranger team recommend that only 10 minutes maximum contact with the pods of animals as is defined by law. “All the boats that have licences,” she said, “and it’s limited to 42 boats for whale and dolphin-watching in Madeira and Porto Santo. The licenses are distributed to different areas around the island.
I suppose it helps but, like the seals, the other marine animals are in danger of becoming affected by our constant attention. I know it’s hard to change our behaviour but maybe we should before we change theirs!
