greatly involved in raising awareness in the general public, fundraising for the helping of the monk seal preservation cause, in Greece and wherever needed. Greece is currently investigating the possibility of declaring another monk seal breeding site as a national park, and also has integrated some sites in the NATURA 2000 protection scheme. The legislation in Greece is very strict towards seal hunting, and in general, the public is very much aware and supportive of the effort for the preservation of the Mediterranean monk seal. One of the largest groups among the foundations concentrating their efforts towards the preservation of the Mediterranean monk seal is the Mediterranean Seal Research Group (Akdeniz Foklarını Araştırma Grubu) operating under the Underwater Research Foundation (Sualtı Araştırmaları Derneği) in Turkey (also known as SAD-AFAG). The group has taken initiative in joint preservation efforts together with the Foça municipal officials, as well as phone, fax, and email hotlines for sightings. Caribbean The extinction of the Caribbean monk seal was mainly triggered by overhunting in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to obtain the oil held within their blubber, fueled by the large demand for seal products. As early as 1688, sugar plantation owners sent out hunting parties to kill hundreds of seals every night for blubber oil to lubricate machinery. The Caribbean monk seals’ docile nature and lack of an instinctive fear of humans made it an easy target, and hunting only ended (in the 1850s) because the population was too low for commercial use. Overfishing of the reefs that sustained the Caribbean monk seal population also contributed to their extinction. Fish stock decline in the Caribbean starved the remaining populations. Little was done to protect the Caribbean monk seal; by the time it was placed on the endangered species list in 1967, it was likely already extinct. References Further reading External links The Monachus Guardian Monk Seal Foundation NOAA Monk Seal Info True seals Monachines