This section is not intended as a definitive report or write-up of the projects concerned. Many of the projects are sponsored; such support is appreciated but is not generally given acknowledgment here.

The Azerbaijan Center for the Protection of Birds has recently established a web site: http://www.azeribirds.org/eng/e_o_nas.ht ml, which has pages devoted to the following topics: rare birds, birdwatching areas, ecological problems, general characteristics, and contacts. The site is in three languages: Russian, English and Azeri. (Source: Jevgeni Shergalin in litt. April 2002.)

Threat to new Ramsar site Despite protests from the Cyprus government, environmentalists and local people concerned by reports of microwave emissions, the British Ministry of Defence is proceeding with the construction of a huge new aerial on the edge of Akrotiri Salt Lake, an internationally important migration hotspot in the eastern Mediterranean (see Sandgrouse 23: 86). The 200-metre-wide array strung between 100-metre masts will complement an existing structure about one quarter of its size in an area already saturated by antenna and aerials of many types (the total surface covered by aerials on the western side of Akrotiri is more than 1 km2). Apart from the negative visual impact upon an extremely interesting habitat between the wetland of Phassouri reedbeds and meadows and Akrotiri reedbeds and lake, local ornithologists are concerned at the dangers posed by the extensive network of wires to migrating and roosting birds, mainly waders and wildfowl. The new site will block airspace between the salt lake and the Phassouri area, thus causing significant mortality to waterfowl moving between the two areas at night. New, inexperienced, migrants arriving at the salt lake from the west, will be 'welcomed' by steel meshes of more than 300 metres in combined length (PLUTO I and II). Finally, the impact of the huge electromagnetic fields on bird movement and orientation is not fully understood but should not be under-estimated. Weekly counts of bird kills have been made since February by the Game Fund and the Sovereign Base Administration, but have been hampered by the limited time available. It is believed that the number of dead birds found does not truly reflect the kills. During the weeklong gap between the one-hour searches, foxes and other predators remove many carcasses. The area searched is a fraction of the entire antennae site, giving a very conservative estimate of the true totals. The refusal of the U. K. government to recognise the full environmental threat to this important wetland site does not assist the cause of those striving to stop the traditional, although illegal, liming and netting in the runup to E. U. accession. The Sovereign Base Administration have proposed Akrotiri Salt Lake and Phassouri Marsh for Ramsar designation-as a site of international importance for waterbirds-making the impact of the aerials on birds of extreme concern. Although the Sovereign Base Administration wishes to exclude the aerial farm, and other significant areas, from the proposed Ramsar site, one wonders if the presence of these aerial towers is compatible with the site's Ramsar designation. (Source: Judy Dawes and David Whaley in litt. August 2002.)

Giant leap in revising Turkish population estimates A first draft of revised Turkish breeding bird population estimates and trends was presented for comment at the Fifth Turkish Bird Conference, in Samsun, on 19-23 April 2002. Turkish ornithologists have reviewed a large body of recent information to provide draft revised population estimates of breeding birds for the BirdLife International Birds in Europe II (BiEII) project. These draft estimates were presented and circulated for comment at the conference. Much interest was generated among the 150 participants and many valuable comments were received. The revision will soon be accompanied by wintering population estimates, and is already a vast improvement on previous data, thus laying a firmer foundation for the conservation of Turkish birds. (Source: http://www. biodiversity.org/ simplify/ev.php?URL_ID= 2112&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION =201&reload=1022146683.)

Witnessing the Monk Seal's extinction in the Black Sea Along Turkey's Black Sea coast, the existence of the Mediterranean Monk Seal Monachus monachus was but a myth to those of us interested in the species for many years. When Gökhan Türe informed me of a live animal captured near Eregli, I could only imagine the incredible scenes of local men trying to catch it inside a dark cave at the base of the cliffs. In 1988, during a long-term survey at Eregli, we found Sükrü Ay din, a fishermen known locally as the 'bear catcher' because of the many seals he had sold to fairs, travelling shows and zoos. From his reminiscences, we were able to trace two seals that had reached Ankara Zoo, in 1957 and 1961. Our interviews also indicated a substantial reduction in the frequency of seal sightings in the late 1980s. Another survey, in 1994, demonstrated that the species was extinct around Eregli. Despite this setback, we still wanted to know the species' status along the rest of Turkey's central Black Sea coast.

Subsequent surveys, in 1993, 1995 and 1997, covered the coast between Akçakoca and Trabzon, and aimed to locate any viable seal population that might respond to urgent conservation efforts. Though we discovered c. 50 caves along unspoilt cliffs that appeared suitable for breeding or resting, over the course of several months we failed to find any trace of the seal. Apart from this, what shocked us most was the scarcity of fish observed during our periods underwater. It appeared'unlikely that the disappearance of the seals and plunging fish stocks were unrelated. During interviews with 150 local. people, mostly fishermen, we obtained information concerning over 200 reported seal sightings, between 1993 and 1997, but most fishermen had made only single observations during that five-year period!

Indeed, from the information that we had gathered, it was clear that the Mediterranean Monk Seal had been reduced from relative abundance to virtual extinction within a human lifetime. Its distribution ranged from Igneada in the western Black Sea to Yakakent in the east (though its easternmost appearance was at Mersin village, Ordu). Older fishermen informed us of herds of monk seals emerging from caves when disturbed, and of males engaging in territorial disputes that occasionally lasted several hours. In contrast to the Aegean coast, our research in the Black Sea demonstrated that habitat destruction and disturbance by tourism had played a negligible role in the decline of the seal. The dominant factor was direct persecution. Historically, local people exploited seals for their blubber and skin, and the animals were also targeted by fishermen while bounty-hunting dolphins during the 1970s. Both dolphins and seals were regarded as the fisherman's arch enemy, damaging nets and stealing fish.

Between Akçakoca and Sinop, villagers reminisced as to how they or their forebears had boiled seals to produce lighting oil, sometimes also selling the pelts to companies in larger cities for leather manufacture. In neighbouring mountain villages, poverty during the 1940s and 1950s had driven inhabitants to hunt monk seals to produce 'carik', a primitive yet durable shoe made either of ox or seal skin. Seal skin was also processed to make harnesses for oxen used in ploughing. Live seal captures brought additional profit to a few enterprising fishermen. Before he died in 1996, Aydin reported capturing at least 21 seals, although I suspect it was many more. Another fisherman, Tunc, claimed that he and Aydin had captured dozens, and perhaps even as many as 100 seals between Igneada and Doganyurt, fulfilling orders received from fairs, zoos and showmen between 1948 and 1973.

Though our surveys failed to uncover any trace of the species, it was of some comfort to learn of fishermen sightings until 1997. In the years that followed we still expected to receive news of additional observations. As time passed, however, our disappointment and unease intensified: not a single seal observation was reported in the years following, even from the Cide, Doganyurt and Sinop coasts from where the majority of sightings had been obtained in 1993-1997. Finally, when I drove from Sinop to Akcakoca in July 2001 for a monk seal television documentary, a week of surveys among old friends confirmed the lack of sightings, no incidences of damage to the stationary nets of fishermen and no half-chewed turbot catch- simple but effective indications of the species' presence-in short, no proof of a live monk seal in the last four years!

The evidence at our disposal strongly suggests that the Mediterranean Monk Seal may have become extinct throughout the Black Sea. Given the scale of marine traffic through the Bosphorus, and the handful of seals in the Sea of Marmara (another sub-population that is teetering on the brink of extinction) natural recolonisation of the Black Sea appears doubtful. It is unlikely that the species' loss from the Black Sea will be met with anything but silence or a brief shrug of regret. And yet, if only for the historical record, it is important to acknowledge how apathy, indifference, lack of judgement and ecological awareness all conspired to bring about its demise. During the late 1970s, the Ministry of Agriculture supplied fishermen with ammunition to hunt dolphins, despite knowledge that the already endangered monk seal was a common victims of these bullets. Despite numerous resolutions urging action, relevant government departments, universities and NGOs did little or nothing to address the species' alarming decline.

When I first became acquainted with the species, I remember being impressed by expert opinion describing its ecological role in the marine environment. The monk seal was at the head of the food chain; it was an 'indicator' species, whose increase or decline would reveal the health of the marine ecosystem. Can it be that government officials and academics read such information but didn't really believe it? Perhaps the ecologists were being alarmist again? If so, perhaps it is time they looked again. The monk seal in the Black Sea is gone. The marine ecosystem is collapsing. Fish stocks have hit rock bottom, unable to withstand the pressures of industrial fleets. Many artisanal fishermen are virtually destitute and many are desperate to sell their boats. The monk seal's probable extinction in the Black Sea is a milestone in the history of the species yet the event, however tragic, calls for far more than sorrow or regret. The same events are now unfolding in the Marmara, the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean Seas. Is it not time that governments finally recognised that monk seals are true ecological indicators of the health of the sea upon which we all depend? (Source: Cem Orkun Kiraç, abridged version of his editorial in The Monachus Guardian, November 2001.)