Dugongs facing multiple threats, warns EAD

ABU DHABI - The dugong (also known as Sea Cow) population in the UAE waters, the world’s second largest home for the marine mammal, is facing multiple threats, the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) warned on Thursday.

“The endangered dugong species is currently facing a number of threats due to habitat loss and human-related activities such as increased marine activity, being caught in discarded fishing nets, impact with boats, marine pollution, as well as a decline of its critical natural habitat — underwater sea grass beds,” Thabit Al Abdessalaam, Director of Biodiversity Management Sector at EAD. According to the agency, the world’s second largest population of dugongs is in the UAE waters, and the importance of protecting this unique species is being highlighted in the fifth episode of ‘The Environment Show with Ask Ali’ series. This episode on the dugong is being screened at the Eco-Cinema at the ‘Bu Tinah Experience’ until November 10.

There are only 95,000 to 100,000 dugongs left in the world. Australia has 85,000, the Arabian Gulf and Red Sea bordering countries have approximately 7,300, while the remainder are located in the other range states.

“The protection of Bu Tinah Island and other dugong habitats continues to be a priority for Abu Dhabi. As our country continues to grow and develop, we must ensure that all our biodiversity and natural resources are conserved effectively,” said Al Abdessalaam.

In this episode of the documentary, viewers get a closer look at the dugong and learn why it has been classified as being ‘vulnerable to extinction’ under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) 2009 Red List of Threatened Species.

This index indicates how such animals face a high risk of extinction in the wild. During the programme, Ali meets with experts from the EAD who explain the threats facing the species, the importance of its existence to the future sustainability of the UAE’s biodiversity and how Bu Tinah has increasingly become a safe haven for this migratory sea mammal.

The EAD’s Dugong Conservation Programme studies the dugongs’ ecology, movement and migration patterns. The data collected over the past 10 years has enabled the EAD to better understand the health of the environment and how it should be managed to ensure long-term sustainability.

It has also helped the EAD to understand dugong behaviour and contribute to the establishment of the Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve.

“We are focused on ensuring that Abu Dhabi’s waters are managed in a manner which helps this globally endangered species. These efforts have enabled us to maintain the species’ population by ensuring the integrity of its key habitats and marine ecosystems,” said Abdessalaam.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2011/November/theuae_November142.xml&section=theuae&col=

Mass starvation of dugongs and turtles on Great Barrier Reef

A sudden mass starvation of turtles and dugongs, a rare sea mammal, off the coast of Queensland has prompted warnings of a long-term natural disaster in the normally sheltered waters just inshore of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
By Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney

Along hundreds of miles of beaches and on the shore of small islands, the rotting carcasses of green turtles and dugongs have are being washed ashore in alarming numbers - victims, scientists believe, of the after effects of the cyclone and floods that have afflicted this part of Australia in the past year.

Now naturalists fear that up to 1,500 dugongs – a species of sea cows – and 6,000 turtles along the Reef are likely to die in the coming months because their main food source, sea grass, which grows on the ocean floor, was largely wiped out by the floods and cyclone.

In some places the plants were ripped from the seabed by currents created by the storms and in others they were inundated under silt and soil washed out from the land by the torrential rains.

Beachgoers have reported stumbling across groups of turtles in shallow waters near Townsville – only to discover they were dead or dying.

"This is a long-term environmental disaster," said Dr Ellen Ariel, a turtle expert at James Cook University.

"It is not like an oil spill where you can clean the water and move on. It is such a large stretch of coastline... We have had mass strandings of turtles. The turtles are sick and starving and can't go on any longer. They don't have anywhere to go."

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says it expects more dugongs to die than in any previous event.

Marine experts have expressed growing concerns about the future of the Reef's dugongs, which are regarded as a vulnerable species. The herbivorous creatures, related to the Florida manatee and believed to be the source of the mermaid myth, helped the Great Barrier Reef gain its listing as a World Heritage area in 1981.

But their number around the southern parts of the Reef, which attracts the largest number of tourist, has declined by an estimated 95 per cent over the past 50 years. Some 5,500 live in the main section of the Reef, and here growing numbers of carcasses have been washing up on to coastal golf courses and island beaches.

Clive Last, who works as a groundsman on a privately-owned island near the town of Gladstone, was making his way back to the shoreline on his boat last month when he spotted a "black bulge" on the rocks of a small island, Witt Island. He made his way to the pontoon and discovered the marooned body of a seven-foot dugong, with much of its skin peeled away.

"I could see straight away there was something there that shouldn't be there," he told the Sunday Telegraph.

"I thought, not another one. It was a big grey and white dead mass, but it was intact. There was no sign of trauma or cuts or bruising. Something is going wrong. I've lived here for 50 years but I have never seen deaths in such numbers."

Mark Read, a protected species expert at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said turtles and dugongs were the "lawnmowers of the sea" and their losses could have a damaging impact on the overall marine ecology.

"We are looking at the highest ever record for stranded dugongs and the same for turtles," he told The Sunday Telegraph.

"Turtles and dugongs play a key role in maintaining healthy seagrass beds. We have concerns about the likely effect from a marked decline of turtles and dugongs. We don't know what the consequences are."

One of the world's experts on dugongs, Prof Helene Marsh, from James Cook University, said she was concerned about the dugong's future in the southern section of the Reef. "It is unprecedented that such a huge area of coast was affected. In this case, because the floods and cyclone were so huge and the damage so widespread - and it followed a wet year last year - we are wondering whether these animals have anywhere else to go."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8753630/Mass-starvation-of-dugongs-and-turtles-on-Great-Barrier-Reef.html

Famine threatens Australia's gentle sea cows

Extreme weather has destroyed the dugong's feeding grounds – just the latest menace facing this already endangered species

An underwater famine is posing the latest threat to one of Australia's most endangered marine species, the dugong, which lives entirely on sea grass. At least 100 have starved to death in recent months and many more are likely to follow in the absence of their only food source.

Torrential rain and storms, including Cyclone Yasi earlier this year, have destroyed vast swathes of sea grass from northern Queensland to the New South Wales border. More than 1,000 miles of coastline which once provided the perfect habitat for these oddly shaped and gentle creatures are now denuded of the dugong's natural foodstuff.

Known as sea cows because of their total dependency on sea grass, numbers have plummeted over the past decade as they struggle to cope with extreme weather conditions, escalating industrial activity, and hunting by indigenous fishermen. Turtles, too, have fallen victim to the seagrass famine with several hundred reported washed up dead along the coastline.

"This is a national environmental disaster," says Professor Ellen Ariel, a marine biologist at James Cook University in Townsville. "What's happening now is they have nothing to eat and it's not going to change in any way soon. Sea grass takes between two to three years to recover, if there are no other extreme weather events in the meantime."

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority is similarly concerned, recently launching a campaign to protect dugong and green turtles which it predicts will die in record numbers. Forced to stray from their regular foraging areas in search of food, the two species are much more vulnerable to disease, injury and death. A major industrial development at Gladstone on the mid-Queensland coast is also increasing pressure on the marine habitat.

A multi-billion pound gas processing plant on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef has already attracted criticism. Last month Unesco's world heritage committee expressed its extreme concern at the Queensland and federal government's backing of the project. For her part, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh has pledged to make a comprehensive assessment of the plant's environmental impact.

In addition to climatic and industrial threats to the dugong population, indigenous fishermen have also been accused of endangering the species. Next month a television campaign will be launched by animal activists who believe Australia's Native Title laws are allowing the "uncontrolled" and "unmonitored slaughter" of dugongs and turtles. Australians For Animals has accused some aboriginal groups of "appalling cruelty".

Campaign organiser Colin Riddell says: "We have a confirmed report of a dugong calf being tied to the back of a boat, its cries bringing in the mother so they can both be killed. We have reports in our office of indigenous groups going out in motor boats with a GPS to find dugongs. Once found, they radio their mates and entire pods of dugongs are slaughtered."

Dugong hunting has been an accepted part of Australia's indigenous culture for thousands of years. Their ivory and bones are used in traditional crafts and their meat, which is said to be similar to high quality beef, is regarded as a delicacy. The Native Title Act allows dugongs to be caught by aborigines for personal, domestic or non-commercial needs, but, according to Mr Riddell, some are being sold for profit. He claims the meat sells for nearly £100 a kilo and is even being exported.

Now he is urging the government to call a moratorium on dugong hunting until population numbers are established. "I don't have a problem with Native Title hunting if it's done sustainably," he insists. "But let's just see how many are left."

The dugong's placid nature and slow swimming style make it easy prey for predators. Spending their entire life at sea, they swim by moving their broad spade-like tail in an up an down motion and by the use of their two flippers. The large grey mammals which are up to 10ft long, can live for decades but take time to reach sexual maturity and do not breed rapidly. Without the sea grass they will simply starve to death.

By Roger Maynard in Sydney
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/famine-threatens-australias-gentle-sea-cows-2345167.html