Every year, on the 28th of May, it is celebrated the World Dugong Day! 🧜
Dugong is known as the sea cow (pic attached 🐮 - x). Why sea cow, you ask? These animals can be found in coastal environments feeding exclusively and extensively on seagrasses. The largest remaining population of Dugongs can be found in Australia (i), while the closest to the United Kingdom can be observed in the shallow waters of The Arabian Gulf (ii) 🌊
Why are dugongs important? 🧐
According to the Dugong & Seagrass Conservation Project (iii), dugongs contribute to maintaining balanced marine coastal environments, while also representing good indicators for local ecosystem health. Their presence is of course linked with seagrasses, which not only represents these herbivore mammals’ only source of food: seagrass sits at bottom of food chain in coastal environments (iv). Moreover, it provides important ecosystem services such as fish products, reduced erosion and flood protection (v). In other words, dugong presence is the manifestation of healthy ecosystem. Terrible news is: they are classified as vulnerable species (vi) 😰
Why are they declining? And how is climate change impacting their population? 😭
Dugongs are sensitive creatures not exempt from anthropogenic (modern age) disturbance. They have been largely hunted by humans for its meat, fat and oils, which caused significant population reduction (vi). Also, seagrass species are under extreme pressure due water quality variations largely driven by climate change (vii) and further human activity (viii). In addition, their slow reproduction rate and long life span (around 70 years) make them less resilient from not-environmentally friendly fishing practices (ix) 🎣
What can be done to support them? 💪
The Australian Great Barrier Reef and Marine Park Authority (i) provides the following recommendations:
1. Protect coastal habitats - Do not damage seagrass by dragging boats on underwater meadows and act against pollution, eutrophication and herbicide use deriving from land-based activities 🚜
2. Avoid use of mesh nets - Dugongs can get trapped in fishing nets 🥅
3. Boat responsibly - Dugongs are hard too spot while sitting on high speeding boats. Reduce speed while crossing shallow waters and seagrass meadows. If you spot one, it is likely it will not the only one in the area 🚢
4. Report - Just like for other sirenians, as well as cetaceans, it is essential to report injured/dead dugongs to local authorities ☎️
5. Donate - Dugong & Seagrass Conservation Project covers the conservation of dugongs and their associated seagrass ecosystems in eight countries in the Indo-Pacific region: Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mozambique, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste and Vanuatu. See more information here: https://www.dugongconservation.org/ 🙏
i. https://www2.gbrmpa.gov.au/learn/animals/dugong#:~:text=Whether%20in%20protection%20areas%20or,flowing%20into%20creeks%20and%20rivers
ii. https://www.seaworldabudhabi.com/en/stories/meet-the-dugongs#:~:text=In%20the%20UAE%2C%20dugongs%20are,Marine%20Biosphere%20Reserve%20(MMBR)
iii. https://www.dugongconservation.org/about/about-dugongs-seagrass/
iv: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/marine-food-chain/7th-grade/
v: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061329/#:~:text=Seagrass%20ecosystems%20play%20a%20multi,erosion%20and%20protection%20against%20floods
vi: https://nc.iucnredlist.org/redlist/amazing-species/dugong-dugon/pdfs/original/dugong-dugon.pdf
vii: https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70204854#:~:text=A%20primary%20effect%20of%20increased,the%20patterns%20of%20sexual%20reproduction
viii: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4020-2983-7_24#citeas
ix: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/sites/default/files/env/pages/0fcb6106-b4e3-4f9f-8d06-f6f94bea196b/files/north-report-card-dugong.pdf
x (picture): https://theconversation.com/dugongs-looking-to-the-gentle-sea-creatures-past-may-guard-its-future-122902
