DUGONG

Dugong (Dugong dugon, Red List IUCN status: Vulnerable

The only living representative of the once-diverse Dugongidae family, the dugong is the only strictly herbivorous marine mammal and is dependent on seagrass communities for food, restricting it to coastal habitats that have seagrass meadows. Part of the sea cow (Sirenia) order of mammals along with three species of manatee, the dugong is extremely vulnerable to overexploitation by humans as it lives in shallow waters. Although there is strong support from Southeast Asian countries to protect the dugong, with Kenya, Mozambique, UAE, Bahrain, India, Sri Lanka, Palau and China also legislating for its protection, effective enforcement of these bans remains elusive. Hunting, habitat degradation, vessel strikes, water pollution and other fishing-related fatalities remain the main cause of the dugong’s decline. At the same time, seagrass meadows are diminishing around the world, principally as a result of nutrient runoff, which stimulates algal growth and in turn reduces the ability of seagrass to photosynthesise.