On Saturday April 28th, the young monk seal Badem was released back to sea. On December 5th the animal had been found as an orphan in Didim, along the west coast of Turkey, and was brought to Foça near Izmir. It was the first time that a live monk seal was found in Turkey. The species are endangered: only an estimated hundred remain along the Turkish coast.
For five months SRRC-worker Richard Dijkema has been looking after the young animal in cooperation with the employees of the Turkish organisation SAD-AFAG, and on Saturday the day had come: Badem was independent, had grown sufficiently and was able to fend for itself. 
With a boat belonging to the coastguard she was taken to the Govoka bay near the Datça peninsular. The trip was supervised (among others) by Lenie ’t Hart, Richard Dijkema and Mustafa Koç and his family. Koç, who adopted the seal, is one of Turkey’s major entrepreneurs. Koç‘s daughter Aylin and Richard Dijkema opened Badem’s travel box together and released Badem back to freedom.
04-29-2007 Source: SRRC Lenie 't Hart
