fishing activities have had a negative impact on wildlife causing the disappearance or endangerment of many species, particularly marine mammals and birds. The former range of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) extended throughout the Northwest Atlantic coast of Africa and the Mediterranean and Black Sea coastlines, including all offshore islands of the Mediterranean, and into the Atlantic and its islands: Canary Islands, Madeira, Ilhas Desertas, Porto Santo, and others as far west as the Azores. Vagrants could be found as far south as Gambia and the Cape Verde islands, and as far north as continental Portugal and Atlantic France. In modern times The Spanish originally claimed the land from 20° 51' N (near Cap Blanc) to 26° 8' N (near Cape Bojador) in 1885. This would be a protectorate governed from the Canary Islands in 1887. France would later claim the Western Sahara. The boundary was settled in a joint French-Spanish convention in 1900 to divide the area between Spanish Sahara and French West Africa. Spain claimed a protectorate over the coastal region from Cap Blanc, far to the south of Cape Bojador, to a point about 200 km to the north in 1884. In 1975, as Spain pulled out following the Madrid Accords, Morocco sought to gain control over the area, leading to disputes between Morocco and the Polisario Front, the organization which proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in February 1976. In January 2016 it was announced that the Canary Association of Victims of Terrorism (ACAVITE) intended to sue the Polisario Front for committing "crimes against humanity". In the Tindouf region of Algeria, Daira de Bojador is a refugee camp for Sahrawis named after Cape Bojador. In December 2015, the bodies of 11 drowned migrants were found 147 kilometers off Cape Bojador. Earlier that same month, the Spanish coastguard rescued 47 African migrants in a boat off the coast of Gran Canaria. References Notes Sailing Directions (Enroute), West Coast of Europe and Northwest Coast of Africa (Pub. 143) (Bethesda: National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency, 2005), p. 214, s.v. "Cabo Bojador." Charles Ralph Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825 (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1969) [Caracanet, 1991], pp. 25–26. Atlas of Pilot Charts: North Atlantic Ocean (Washington: National Imagery and Mapping Agency, 2002). Carlos B. Carreiro (author), Portugal's Golden Years, The Life and Times of Prince Henry "The Navigator", (Dorrance Publishing Co, Inc), p. 64 External links Satellite image of