Caribbean Monk Seal Extinct

circa 1952 CECaribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico

"When Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Alta Vela, south of Haiti, on his second voyage in 1494, he saw a group of eight 'sea wolves' on the beach. A shore party killed all eight of them . . . Monk seals are the only seals that live in warm waters year-round; this fondness for tropical waters meant that they were likely to inhabit the very locations where human beings from colder climates wanted to spend their vacations . . . The final sighting of a wild Caribbean monk seal occurred in 1952, off the Serranilla Bank, 250 miles southwest of Jamaica . . ."

Richard Ellis, No Turning Back: the Life and Death of Animal Species (New York, NY: HarperCollins, 2004), 136-139.

Image: Captive Caribbean Monk Seal, New York Aquarium, New York Zoological Society, 1910.