Extinction History:

The first known encounter between Caribbean Monk Seals and Europeans occurred in late August 1494, when Christopher Columbus on his second voyage anchored for 3 days at Alto Velo (a small island south of the Dominican Republic) and killed at least 8 seals (Adam and Garcia 2003; Kerr 1824).

At the end of August, he anchored at an island called Alto Velo, and having lost sight of the other two ships, he caused some men to go on shore in that little island which was very high, but they were unable to see either of their consorts. When about to return on board, they killed eight sea wolves [= Caribbean Monk Seals] that lay asleep on the sand, and took abundance of pigeons and other birds; for that island being uninhabited, these animals were unaccustomed to the sight of men, and allowed themselves to be knocked down with sticks.

Since their discovery the Caribbean Monk Seals were killed for their skins and oil (Lowry 2015). This human pressure brought the populations to very low numbers, ultimately resulting in extinction of the species (Adam 2004; Lowry 2015). The last Caribbean Monk Seal colony at the coast of Veracruz (Mexico) was observed in 1524. The colony at Guyana was last seen in 1613, at Klein Curaçao (Curaçao, Kingdom of the Netherlands) in 1643 and the colony at Guadeloupe (France) in 1667 (McClenachan & Cooper 2007). In the late 1600s hundreds of seals were killed primarily to be used for oil to lubricate machinery on sugar plantations. Additional animals were taken for public display and killed for museum specimens and other reasons (Lowry 2015). In more recent years, the Caribbean Monk Seal was also subject to persecution from the fishing industry (Lowry 2015). H. Sloan wrote in 1707: \"The Bahama Islands are filled with seals; sometimes fishers will catch one hundred in a night\" (Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999). The colonies at Seal Cay (Ragged Island District, Bahamas) and the south of Cuba were last observed in 1850 and 1877 (McClenachan & Cooper 2007). The end of the 19th century witnessed relentless slaughters and the species had already become rare in the 1880\'s, before it was properly known to science (Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999). The Caribbean Monk Seals at Dry Tortugas (Florida, United States of America) persisted until 1922 (McClenachan & Cooper 2007). The Triangle Keys (Arrecifes Triángulos, Mexico) have remained a stronghold of the species until 1915, when about 200 animals were butchered there (Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999). In 1950 the last seals of the former colonies at Arrecifes Triángulos, Arrecife Alacrán (Mexico) and Pedro Bank (Jamaica) were seen (McClenachan & Cooper 2007). C.B. Lewis observed the last authoritative sighting of Caribbean monks at a small seal colony off Seranilla Banks (Colombia) in 1952, located between Jamaica and Honduras (Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999). An aerial survey in 1973, conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, found extensive fishing activity throughout the former range of this seal (Kenyon 1977; Lowry 2015). A later cruise through the Gulf of Mexico and around the Yucatan Peninsula failed to find any Caribbean monk seals in the area (Le Boeuf et al. 1986; Lowry 2015). Surveys have been carried out as late as 1993, all without success (Lowry 2015). The Caribbean monk seal was formally declared extinct in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.