Sunday, June 08, 2008

H. S. For Sunday 060808

Really?

Hey folks,

In the Health and Science segment this week, we learn that we have yet another reason to feel guilty. Yet another victim has been named due to our careless, selfishness, and arrogant sinning selves. The Caribbean Monk Seal.

Yes folks, just like the Woolly Flying Squirrel, and the Soft Shell Turtle, the Caribbean Monk Seal has become extinct. According to the AP anyway.

HONOLULU (AP) — Federal officials have confirmed what biologists have long thought: The Caribbean monk seal has gone the way of the dodo.

Humans hunting the docile creatures for research, food and blubber left the population unsustainable, say biologists who warn that Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be the next to go.

The last confirmed sighting of a Caribbean monk seal was in 1952 between Jamaica and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service confirmed Friday that the species is extinct.

Kyle Baker, a biologist for NOAA's Fisheries Service southeast region, said the species is the only seal to become extinct from human causes.

The seals were first classified as endangered in 1967, and wildlife experts investigated several reported sightings over the past few decades. But officials determined they were other seal types.

So we did it again. Can we learn from this? Can we change our evil ways? The is only one problem. Are they really extinct? The Woolly Flying Squirrel, and the Soft Shell Turtle, long thought to be, are not. As a matter of fact, according to The List Universe - Top 10 Extinct Creatures That Aren’t Extinct, many of those that once thought gone forever, are just around the corner. There are many more than just these ten. So maybe the Monk Seal is only extinct until someone finds them again. Meanwhile they will just be another tool to teach us how evil we really are.
Peter

Sources:
AP - Caribbean monk seal becomes extinct
The List Universe - Top 10 Extinct Creatures That Aren’t Extinct

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