Perhaps the first example of a species passing on due to the insatiable need for fuel, the Caribbean Monk Seal was native to the tropical beaches and seas of the Caribbean islands.
They were about 2.4 metres (8 ft) long and weighed around 170 to 270 kilograms (375 to 500 lbs). They could sometimes be seen with algae growing on their fur, giving them a greenish tint on an otherwise brownish grey body.

Their docile behaviour coupled with a lack of a ‘flight’ instinct made them susceptible to colonizers of the islands. Hauling out onto beaches in droves as large as a 100 individuals, the Caribbean Monk Seal was an easy target for sugar plantation owners in the late 1600s that would slaughter them in the hundreds on a nightly basis. The oil from their bladders was used to lubricate plantation equipment. Soon, fishermen took to using their oil for lamp fuel and a commercial hunt for the animal began in earnest.

By 1850, there were so few seals that they were no longer commercially viable. Overfishing of the Caribbean made it difficult for the remaining population to sustain itself, with both mollusks and fish supplies so low that the seals would starve, or be so malnourished as to be unable to reproduce.

Once the seal was last spotted on the Seranilla Bank between Jamaica and Nicaragua in 1952, so too went the Caribbean Monk Nasal Mite (Halarachne americana), a parasite that lived in the respiratory passage of the animal.

Extinction Date According to the IUCN Red List: 1952