Caribbean Monk Seal Extinct
circa 1952 CE • Caribbean 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.
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