Dugongs are important in coastal marine ecosystems. The status of their population in an area can be used as an indicator of general ecosystem health.

The dugongs have a slow and graceful movement. Even early explorers and sailors thought they were mermaids because of their streamlined bodies—the mermaid theory!

The gentle creatures, however, have slow breeding rate and long life span making them susceptible to life threatening factors, particularly habitat degradation by human impacts. With that, dugongs are tagged as “vulnerable,” meaning they are facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.

Just recently, dugongs were found to be functionally extinct in China after having experienced rapid population collapse in the recent decades due to human pressures, according to a study in August.

“Their absence will not only have a knock-on effect on ecosystem function, but also serves as a wake-up call—a sobering reminder,” said Professor Samuel Turvey of Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology, a co-author of the study.

How did this happen?

The near-shore habitats of dugongs highly overlap with human activity such as fishing, making the seagrass-eating mammals vulnerable to human pressures. Deliberate hunting (dugong as food), degradation of seagrass beds, and accidental entanglement are also probable causes of the rapid decrease in dugong population.

What does functional extinction mean?

Though there may be remaining dugong species in Chinese waters, the charismatic mammals are no longer able to maintain a viable population.

The population decline is highly likely irreversible under current conditions with the “continuing deterioration of coastal ecosystems in the northern South China Sea.” It is also unlikely that dugongs be able to shift habitats in response to human activity because seagrass beds are greatly degraded in the entire northern South China Sea.

Though this is China’s first functional extinction of a large mammal in their coastal waters, this follows their recent extinctions of the Yangtze River dolphin or baiji, and of the Steller’s sea cow, which was “hunted to extinction within 27 years of its discovery in the eighteenth century.”

In the Philippines, seagrass habitat loss and degradation, and human activities such as by-catch incidents, where dugongs are unintentionally caught in commercial fishing, and dynamite fishing also threaten the dugong population.

Most of the dugongs now live in northern Australian waters between Shark Bay in Western Australia and Moreton Bay in Queensland. And the Great Barrier Reef in Australia supports this significant population.

Is hope lost for the dugongs?

Globally, dugongs are closely watched by environmental organizations. The dugong is listed under he IUCN - the World Conservation Union - Red List of Threatened Animals as vulnerable to extinction.

In Australia, dugongs are protected under pieces of legislation like the Commonwealth Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Act 1975.

For the dugong species’ continued survival, conservation efforts can still be optimized. Here are some of the urgent and critical needs emphasized by the aforementioned study:

• Adoption of more sustainable regional marine stewardship practices

• Execution of effective population and habitat management within dugong habitats across other seas

• Enhancement of species monitoring to identify those at high risk of extinction and to guide regional conservation actions

Other things to do to help protect the dugongs:

• Do not drag boats over seagrass meadows

• Prevent using pollutants, nutrients, and agricultural herbicides that can flow into creeks and rivers

• Avoid using mesh nets for fishing and look out for the dugongs, particularly in shallow waters and seagrass areas

• Report any injured or dead dugongs to authorities such as the nearest offices of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources or of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau

Other Interesting News

Dugongs in sight!

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources shared photos of dugongs spotted in Sarangani Bay Protected Seascape on September 2, 2022.