THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Dugong on the verge of extinction

Dugong on the verge of extinction

GELANG PATAH - Known also as the sea cow, the dugong which inspires many tales like mermaid legends, is on the verge of extinction.

The vast development taking place in the southern state of Johor, once a popular feeding ground for the mammal, has led to its dwindling numbers.
 
Back in the 1960s and 1970s, local fishermen would often catch a glimpse of the shy creatures as the area was abundant with spoon seagrass, their main diet. 
 
Fishermen Tang King Tong, 68, recalled an incident in 2004 where a 30kg baby dugong got caught in a fishing net.
 
“We convinced the fisherman to release the dugong back into the sea as it was still a baby. Its mother was roaming near the shore, as if waiting for her baby,” he said in an interview.
 
Tang claimed it was a common practice in the old days for the orang asli community (indigenous people) to consume dugong meat, which tastes like beef.
 
“Orang asli would also carve the bones into a pipe,” he said, attributing this to a belief that smoking it would help reduce body temperature when a person was suffering from high fever.
 
There was also talk then that the tear drop of a dugong was believed to have magical powers, so bomoh (shaman) would use it to make love potions, he claimed.
 
Tang, who has been living in the village since marrying his orang asli wife in the 1960s, claimed there were about 200 to 300 dugong five decades ago but their number had decreased by more than half.
 
“Besides dugong, it was common to spot crocodiles, turtles and bottlenose dolphins in the waters of Gelang Patah, especially near Merambong Island which is rich with seagrass.
 
“The seagrass is a favourite breeding ground for prawns, crabs and seahorses as the marine creatures can camouflage themselves on the seabed or hide from their predators there,” he said.
 
He believes that the number of sea creatures had dipped due to land reclamation works.
 
Another fisherman Rolen Oni, 35, said he first saw a dugong, almost 5m long, when he was about 16 years old.
 
“Three adult dugong had died in the past due to injuries from ship propellers near the port area.
 
“Some people have even offered financial rewards to fishermen in the village if they manage to catch a dugong alive,” he claimed.
 
The most recent spotting of a dugong was on May 5 when the carcass of one was found floating in the sea near a village after it had apparently sustained injuries from fishing nets.
 
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