Caribbean Monk Seals Have Become Extinct
Biologists believe that the Caribbean monk seals have become extinct because of the amount of people that hunt them for research, blubber, and food. They stated that it has been decades since they have seen a sighting of one and they now fear that the Mediterranean and Hawaiian monk seals will be the next ones in line.
The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service confirmed Friday that the species is extinct.
Kyle Baker is a biologist for NOAA’s Fisheries Service who stated that they are the only animals to become extinct from what humans have done. They have always been easy prey for people to catch since the time of Colombus.
In 1967 they were declared an endangered species.