Report Indicates Dugongs Facing Extinction
by Jim Kleeman
Posted on June 6, 2002
Dugongs are in danger of extinction, according to a report recently issued by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The report points out that dugongs have all but disappeared from the coasts of Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, the Comoros Islands, the Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius, all of which once hosted herds numbering in the hundreds.
"The dugong is an indicator for the health of the environment," said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the UNEP. "It is a clear signal that the living conditions are changing and that other products of the sea are decreasing."
Dugongs are hunted for food, and their tusks are used to make pipes, amulets and aphrodisiacs. Other threats to the slow-moving animals’ survival include boat propellers, pollution, coastal development, fishing nets and trophy hunters.
The UNEP report indicates that there are only between 1,000 and 2,000 dugongs remaining in the world.
A dugong population only grows at a rate of approximately five percent per year even under the best of circumstances.
Conservationists are calling for the creation of dugong sanctuaries and a reduction in the amount of pollutants that destroy the sea grass the animals eat.
Source
nited Nations Environment Programme
"Mermaids": Urgent Action Needed to Save Them from Habitat Destruction, Pollution and Entanglement in Fishing Nets
© 2002 Animal News Center, Inc. - Reprinted with permission.
