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In my September 2005 letter, I told you about the 'Akdeniz Foku Bilgi ve Kurtarma Ağı' (AFBİKA) (Mediterranean Monk Seal Information and Rescue Network) established on the Aegean coast by my friends at the SAD-AFAG. You might have been wondering what happened to Turkey's other seas, especially considering the fact that there are as many Mediterranean monk seals living in the Mediterranean as in the Aegean! There are even some seals still living in the Black Sea. Well, the Regional Environmental Center (REC)-Turkey has now provided the support to extend AFBİKA to the Mediterranean!
In addition, the SAD-AFAG are busy extending the AFBİKA further south in the Aegean as far as the Syrian border. With the support of REC, the SAD-AFAG have brought out a brochure to help people understand AFBİKA. It includes stickers and descriptions of us seals so that people can identify our gender and age if they spot us.
Meanwhile, the SAD-AFAG have also created a new seal sighting form together with the Dokuz Eylül University / Institute of Marine Studies and Technology. This new form is much more comprehensive than the ones they used before and was also developed with the support of MOm, who are working to protect us seals in Greece. Many seal sightings have been reported in the Aegean to AFBİKA, including in Gökova, Kuşadası and Dalyan. We're hanging in there!
If you wish to declare a record a seal sighting with the AFBİKA, call 0533-488 58 58 or fill out a form at www.afag.org.
Uykucu,
