The Minister for Heritage, the Environment and Climate Change, Prof John Cortes, unveiled a statue of a Monk Seal mother and pup yesterday evening at the 2nd Europa Advance Battery.

The statue is part of an awareness campaign which is being promoted by the Italian Gruppo Foca Monaca-Onlus. The Group was initiated following the international alarm for the risk of extinction of the Mediterranean Monk Seal. 

The Gibraltar statue joins similar sculptures on the island of Marettimo in Italy, the island of Vis in Croatia, and a new sculpture on the Greek island of Othoni. The statue was installed in collaboration with the Gibraltar Museum.

The aim of this initiative is to establish relationships of friendship between the various small Mediterranean communities that are united by an ‘unusual destiny’: that of having hosted at some point, and in some cases even today, this very rare seal.

Prof Cortes said the project captured both the link between man and nature and the link “between Mediterranean people.”

He added: “I almost hope that it’s going to serve as an attraction for those Mediterranean Monk Seals that are out there somewhere.”