It is one of Europe's fastest developing tourist regions but, away from the crowds, stretches of wild coastline along Turkey's Mediterranean and Aegean shores have become a haven for a critically endangered species: there are just a few more than 400 Mediterranean monk seals left in the wild, and they are struggling to survive.

"In 30 years' time, if things go the way they're going, the monk seals will be extinct," said Ozan Veryeri, a conservationist based on the Karaburun peninsula, which lies south of the city of Izmir, in western Turkay.

For ancient Greek seafarers, the sight of monk seals in the waves and on the beaches was an omen of good fortune. Mediterranean seals were first mentioned by Aristotle in the 3rd century BC, and the head of a seal featured on one of the earliest coins ever found.

Environmental groups in Turkey are now trying to set up new sanctuaries to give these reclusive creatures a chance to breed. They want to clamp down on illegal fishing and establish no-go zones where the seals can flourish and fish stocks can be replenished.

Just a few decades ago, the monk seal was a relatively common sight in Turkey, Greece and North Africa. But as the pace of human development has intensified, their numbers have dwindled.

Local activists are working with international conservation groups to raise awareness of the plight of the monk seals. They have had support from the Turkish government, which has set up some protected reserves where tourist development is strictly limited.

If the campaign is to have any chance of success, however, it has to have the active support of communities along the coastline. Using slide shows and simple plays, schoolchildren are taught to view the seals as their friends.

"Our message is simple: saving the seals is part of protecting the environment as a whole," Mr Veryeri said. "Children seem to understand just how fragile our ecosystem is."

A bigger challenge is to persuade local fishermen that they, too, should take part in the campaign. At the fishermen's cooperative next to Karaburun's tiny harbour the talk is of empty nets and economic hardship. The fish, they say, are disappearing fast.

"It's the big trawlers, they come in and take everything," claimed Suleyman Yalcinkaya, who has been diving for fish off the side of his boat for 25 years. "The big trawlers have guns on board and they shoot the seals and the dolphins if they get in the way."

Seals have always been seen as something of a pest by the fishing community - even these small-time fishermen Karaburun. They hunt the same fish and they damage nets. But the villagers seem to be coming round to the idea of conservation as a way to sustain their own lifestyle.

"We're trying to convince them that they have something special here," said Ibrahim Sivrikaya, the village doctor and a monk seal enthusiast. "It is in their interest to preserve it."

More than 140m people live along the Mediterranean coast and illegal construction and pollution are rife. Laws will have to be strictly enforced if the seals are to have a fighting chance of survival.

However, much of the damage has already been done. Monk seals are strong swimmers and can live for up to 30 years but they are extremely sensitive to disturbance and they are slow to breed.

The mortality rate among pups has risen as they have retreated from open beaches to caves which are often swamped by the sea, or are vulnerable to collapse.

The seals are also threatened by disease and toxic algae. In 1997 about two-thirds of the world's largest surviving population of Mediterranean monk seals was wiped out in the space of a few weeks on the coast of the western Sahara.

Turkish environmentalists want to stop their seal colonies suffering the same fate. "We have a real battle on our hands," said Mr Veryeri as he scanned the rocky shore with his binoculars, "and there's no time to lose."