THE MONACHUS GUARDIAN, JUNE 2009 Dear Colleagues and Friends of the Monk Seal This is to let you know that we have now published the June 2009 issue of The Monachus Guardian, the biannual electronic journal focusing on the Mediterranean, Hawaiian and Caribbean monk seals. The site can be accessed at <http://www.monachus-guardian.org> HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CURRENT ISSUE: Guest Editorial: Monk seal metaphor for the Mediterranean ecosystem, by Ali Cemal Gücü... International News: IUCN World Congress votes overwhelmingly for monk seal action but will its own specialist group pay any heed? .... plus, Who are our seals? Moving towards a standardized population estimate approach for Monachus monachus a report on the ECS Workshop in Istanbul. Hawaiian News: Ecosystem healthy; monk seals plunging... Mediterranean News: Croatia: Comeback sightings... Greece: STOP PRESS | Artemis found dead on Skiathos... Turkey: Badem undergoes veterinary treatment... Mauritania: Open beach observations on the rise in Cabo Blanco... Cover Story: Freedom at last for KP2, the first successfully released hand-reared Hawaiian monk seal, by David Schofield... In Focus I: Artemis diary, by Eugenia Androukaki... In Focus II: Our monk seal ambassador, Desertinha¹, dies in Madeira, by Rosa Pires... Perspectives I: Our Sea, Our Life, by Konstantinos Mentzelopoulos... Perspectives II: The 1st International Conference for Marine Mammal Protected Areas: a long overdue workshop on both Monachus species, by Spyros Kotomatas, Vangelis Paravas, Harun Güçlüsoy and Rosa Pires... Letters to the Editor: Volunteering and internships in monk seal conservation... Recent Publications. The current and back issues of The Monachus Guardian are also available from the Monk Seal Library <http://www.monachus-guardian.org/library.htm> and may either be viewed on-line, or downloaded as PDF files. Should you have any comments on the web site or its contents, please contact us at: editor@monachus-guardian.org. For breaking or developing news stories between issues of the journal, please check out our TMG news blog <http://www.monachus-guardian.org/wordpress> and/or TMG Facebook page <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Monachus-Guardian/41543542423> Our sincere thanks to all the friends and colleagues who have made this issue possible. William M. Johnson editor@monachus-guardian.org PS. Don't hesitate to let us know if you appear to be on this email information list in error. _______________________________________ William M Johnson editor@monachus-guardian.org http://www.monachus-guardian.org http://www.iridescent-publishing.com _______________________________________