Western Sahara's fate-independence or Moroccan rule-is scheduled for December 1998. UN officials hope to have most land mines removed by then. The vote is threatened, however, by Morocco's repeated attempts to skew the referendum in its favor. Former US Secretary of State James Baker visited the refugee camps last year to keep the peace process moving. Since 1993, a team of Spanish biologists has
braved the former war zone to study the seal colony and start the preservation process. "It's a great oppor tunity because it's the last true Mediterranean monk seal colony," says researcher Teresa Pastor of the University of Barcelona. "The need is urgent." Biologists are moving quickly because of a
�ri:'\d��before another disease-or land mine removal-wipes them out.
Dennis Lewon
suspected viral infection/algal bloom that devastated the seals in 1997. More than half the colony's adults died, pushin g the species ever closer to the brink of extinction. The scien tists hope to learn enough about the seals to save them
Meanwhile, says Pastor, "We don't wander."
