Saving the world's rarest seal from uranium

From the Guardian: Saving the world's rarest seal from uranium

Greek conservationists from the Greek NGO, Archipelagos, work to protect endangered common dolphins and monk seals and also the region's marine ecosystems from the effects of overfishing, shipping, and the military. Dr Anastasia Miliou, manager and head scientist from Archipelagos Institute of Marine and Environmental Research of the Aegean Sea, based on the Greek island of Samos in the eastern Aegean, explains about seals, uranium deposits and sonar
(4)Tweet this (8)Guardian Weekly, Friday 30 October 2009 09.00 GMT Article history
An endangered monk seal. Photograph: Phil Mislinski/Getty Images

The Mediterranean monk seal is the world's rarest and most endangered marine mammal. Its population is less than 450 and one of the most important remaining populations survives in the Aegean region. We are urging fishing communities and authorities to understand that the marine biodiversity needs to be conserved, not only for the sake of productive marine ecosystems or the endangered species, but also for the benefit of human communities, whose livelihood depends on the health and productivity of the seas.

We are working throughout the Greek seas, especially the eastern Aegean, studying dolphin and whale migrations and the impacts on these animals from military activity and sonar from the Greek, Turkish and NATO navy.

We are working closely with local fishermen and communities aiming to protect marine ecosystems and fish stocks. Our aim is to encourage the local fishing communities to acquire an active role in the conservation of their marine habitats, and for this purpose we are working to create the first locally managed fishing zone in the eastern Mediterranean.

During years of working closely with the fishermen, we realised that these people who spend all their lives close to or within the sea, are more environmentally aware than people generally think. The marine ecosystems are a true part of their lives and they have a deep respect for them. It is not difficult to get them to contribute to the conservation of marine resources and of rare species such as the monk seal, the dolphins, whales and marine turtles.

However, they are a low-income group of professionals, who work under very harsh conditions in order to survive and support their families. Before we ask them to contribute to conservation efforts, we need to provide them with efficient solutions for the management of their marine resources, and give them an active role as co-managers.

As Archipelagos researchers and conservationists we live among the local communities on different islands around the Aegean. Only in this way are we able to get a clear understanding of the socio-economic issues of these communities. Along with scientific data, we can then develop management plans which will provide long-term solutions for marine conservation, respecting the local culture and habits of each local community involved.

But it is a big challenge trying to lobby governments, who control the military activity within international waters, to protect marine mammals and other marine life from the detrimental impacts of military sonars, but also from highly toxic materials like depleted uranium that have been deposited by the military. Archipelagos has created the only independent, non-profit laboratory in Greece, which aims to assess and detect potential pollution sources, which put ecosystems and people's health in danger.

We are partly self-funded and partly financed by private donations – helping to fund our laboratory on Samos island and also our research boat that we use to go out into the sea and monitor water quality, soil and sediments, as well as animal and plant tissues.

After years of hard work, it is very encouraging to observe the mentalities of the local communities to change, acknowledging that the conservation of their marine resources is the only way to protect their own livelihoods, but also to see them willing to actively contribute to conservation.

• Dr Anastasia Miliou was interviewed by Georgina Kenyon.