Monk seal | Facts & Information

No matter how hard it may seem to believe, the Romanian seaside was until recently a place of rest and breeding of young for a special species of seal. Black Sea seal or monk seal (Monachus monachus albiventer) as it was also called because of its dark color on the back and open on the abdomen. It was a species known since ancient times by many Romans.

The aquatic mammal continued to be quite widespread in the Black Sea, there being in this direction a series of documents certifying its appearances on the Romanian coast. In 1877, a seal was caught at St. George in the Danube Delta, hanging in the carmacele for Mormons, and in 1913, another was caught in the carmacele between St. George and the gate of Razelmului.

The same sad fate befell another seal caught at the mouth of the Zaton. The greatest blows received by the species of seals were given by the fishermen of Cape Caliacra, who closed their way with nets and caught them with a lat thrown by the neck. They were to be killed with their clubs by superstitious fishermen with a not very high IQ, who believed that seals catch all the fish in the sea. The SEALs thus reached the brink of extinction.

In 1937 there were barely 3 families of 6-7 specimens each: one at Stanca, another at Balchik, and the last at Cape Caliacra. In total, only 18-21 seals for the entire Black Sea. On July 10, 1960, he accidentally caught himself on the arm of St. George of the Danube, a young female weighing 62.5 kg. and had a body length of 154 cm., being the 9th seal caught in the last 60 years on the Romanian coast.

The year 1972 brings new data materialized in the seal tracks discovered on the sand of Sacalin island, at the southern extremity of Roh. On March 26,1983, near the town of Tulcea, next to Mile 35, on the shore, a dead seal was found. Port authorities and the militia discovered a deep wound between the animal's ribs, probably a fisherman's knife wound.

This is the last account of the appearance of a seal in Romania. Since then, all seals in the Black Sea have disappeared. The species is in danger of total extinction. The last 150 specimens still live on several islands in Greece and Turkey.