They ate it, but you can't

[Graydog]

The Caribbean Monk Seal is extinct.

After five years of futile efforts to find or confirm sightings of any Caribbean monk seals — even just one — the U.S. government on Friday announced that the species is officially extinct and the only seal to vanish due to human causes.

"Caribbean monk seals were first discovered during Columbus’s second voyage in 1494, when eight seals were killed for meat," the fisheries service noted. "Following European colonization from the 1700s to 1900s, the seals were exploited intensively for their blubber, and to a lesser extent for food, scientific study and zoological collection. Blubber was processed into oil and used for lubrication, coating the bottom of boats, and as lamp and cooking oil. Seal skins were sought to make trunk linings, articles of clothing, straps and bags."

Complete Story on MSN

[MadL]

No wonder so many sharks are attacking in recent years...the ocean is running out of seal meat and they must settle for second best!!!

there be two species o' Cuban iguana they still have not found any more of as well, not sure if they have been officially written off yet....'n the Cayman Island Blue Iguana still struggles too:

Blue Iguana Recovery Program - Saving the Blues

[Misson]

They may have eaten them, but they didn't think much of them as food. From Dampier's New Voyage Round the World, where he's speaking about an indian who was stranded on Juan Fernandez island for three years:

"With such Instruments as he made in that manner, he got such Provision as the Island afforded; either Goats or Fish. He told us that at first he was forced to eat Seal, which is very ordinary Meat, before he had made hooks, but afterwards he never killed any Seals but to make Lines, cutting their Skins into Thongs."

So it doesn't sound like we're missing much. (More species became extinct before the arrival of man than currently exist on this planet. We've actually had a remarkably small impact on species extinction as a percentage of the total. In a related note, the polar bears - which were recently placed on the US Endangered list - have actually doubled in number in the last 40 years. Talk about the politics of perception. )

[Honour Bright]

Bet it tasted like chicken....

[MadL]

.........(More species became extinct before the arrival of man than currently exist on this planet. We've actually had a remarkably small impact on species extinction as a percentage of the total. In a related note, the polar bears - which were recently placed on the US Endangered list - have actually doubled in number in the last 40 years. Talk about the politics of perception. )

But I remember see'n a documentary what showed the demise o' the mighty dinosaurs:

*Mighty Dinos walk'n proud 'n tall o'er the planet. Then one day a small but odd creature step out into th' open....t'was a Man.

Curious th' Dinos were so they walk'd right up t' th' puny Man thing 'n surround' it they did, but suddenly the Man's face began t' wrinkle, then he let out a mighty Sneeze - all th' Dinos keel'd o'er dead.*

No impact ye say?!? Well ye just remember that next time ye feel a sneeze come'n on....there just might be one last terradactile fly'n o'er!!!

[CaptainSatan]

Perhaps they were all eaten by coelocanths?

[Misson]

Now Dampier says being forced to eat seals could lead to mutiny!

"The 15th Day we went ashore, and found abundance of Penguins and Boobies, and Seal in great quantities. We sent aboard of all these to be drest, for we had not tasted any Flesh in a great while before; therefore some of us did eat very heartily. Captain Swan, to encourage his Men to eat this coarse Flesh, would commend it for extraordinary Food, comparing the Seal to a roasted Pig, the Boobies to Hens, and the Penguins to Ducks; this he did to train them to live contentedly on coarse Meat, not knowing but he might be forced to make use of such Food before we departed out of these Seas; for it is generally seen among Privateers, that nothing emboldens them sooner to Mutiny than want, which we could not well suffer in a Place where there are such quantities of these Animals to be had, if Men could be perswaded to be content with them." (Dampier, p. 105-6)

BTW, I said small impact, not no impact, and even then I qualified it by comparing it to the 'natural' impact (based on the environmentalist-espoused assumption that anthropomorphic impact is somehow non-natural.) We impact everything we come in contact with, even when we try not to. (In fact, we often affect things in the most dramatic ways when we try not to or try to undo what we think we've done. The records of the national park service are filled with astounding mistakes made in the effort to "preserve" a dynamic, ever-changing environment.) For an eye-opening look at what happens when we go about trying to preserve a species, check out In a Dark Wood, by Dr. Alston Chase.

And, for the record, dinosaurs and man are separated in history by tens of millions of years. Sneeze to your heart's content.

[Misson]

I keep coming across the same thing in multiple sources which I was astounded at until I started thinking about why I was so. So here's something else they ate that you can't, but for a completely different reason.

"“In the South Atlantic the crew of the Unity got tired of salted provisions and caught dolphins, the flesh of which was enjoyed by all the ship’s company. " (W.R. Thrower, Life at Sea in the Age of Sail, p. 88)

"[1721]We saw also abundance of flying Fish, and their continual Enemies, the Albicore and Dolphin, the latter we strike now and then with a Fizgig, or Harping-iron. It is a glorious-colour'd, strait Fish, four or five Foot long, forked Tail, perpendicular to the Horizon: plays familiarly about Ships; is of dry Taste, but makes good Broth. They are seldom seen out of the Latitudes of a Trade wind; and the flying fish never: These are the bigness of small Herrings; their Wings about two thirds its length; come narrow from the Body, and end broad; they fly by the help of them a Furlong at a time when pursued, turning in their Flight, sometimes dip in the Sea, and so up again,; the Wind making them, but this Expedient, fleeter." (John Atkins, A Voyage to Guinea, Brazil and the West Indies, p. 33-4)

“[1670] And not long afterward we had a score of fish which followed us for a fortnight, of bonetas and ‘albecores’ and some ‘dolfines’, which were a great refreshment to us, we taking many of them; and many times flying fish would fly into the ship as we were sailing along, for being chased out of the water by the bonetas and other fish, to escape their lives, not seeing in the night, they fly on board.” (Edward Barlow, Barlow's Journal, p. 181)

[Cpt Sophia M Eisley]

.........(More species became extinct before the arrival of man than currently exist on this planet. We've actually had a remarkably small impact on species extinction as a percentage of the total. In a related note, the polar bears - which were recently placed on the US Endangered list - have actually doubled in number in the last 40 years. Talk about the politics of perception. )

But I remember see'n a documentary what showed the demise o' the mighty dinosaurs:

*Mighty Dinos walk'n proud 'n tall o'er the planet. Then one day a small but odd creature step out into th' open....t'was a Man.

Curious th' Dinos were so they walk'd right up t' th' puny Man thing 'n surround' it they did, but suddenly the Man's face began t' wrinkle, then he let out a mighty Sneeze - all th' Dinos keel'd o'er dead.*

No impact ye say?!? Well ye just remember that next time ye feel a sneeze come'n on....there just might be one last terradactile fly'n o'er!!!

MadL - Wasn't that "sneeze" in an episode of The Simpsons? I can recall Homer was the culprit.

It is sad that these seals are now extinct, but with time and the occasional helping hand of other creatures in nature (and/or Mother Nature herself), that's what happens to a great many species. *shrugs*