The sea cow is pretty dang cute. They’re big and blubbery, slow moving and gentle. They don’t do much except float around and munch on sea grasses, but in some areas, their numbers have decreased dramatically due to things like the fishing industry and its use of nets. Sea cows, also known as dugongs, often find themselves caught in those nets, and they end up drowning. But a new program in Mozambique’s Bazaruto Archipelago National Park has been launched in an attempt to those dwindling numbers up.
The dugong sub-population in Mozambique is in particularly dire straits. With only a few hundred left, their future has long been uncertain. Aside from fishing, the seagrasses they feed on are declining as coastal areas are built up and pollution levels rise.
The Bazaruto Archipelago National Park is indeed a protected area, but dugongs can’t read the signage, so they don’t always stick to its borders. Conservationists have a plan to tag them and use the information from those tags to figure out where they go when they leave and when they do it.
“Understanding dugong movements and habitat use is vital for the long-term protection of the species and their marine environment,” Evan Trotzuk, African Parks’ Research and Monitoring Coordinator at Bazaruto, told IFLScience. “But there is still much work to be done.”
According to Trotzuk, the East African population of dugongs is a bit of mystery in around half of its habitat. Dugongs move about mostly alone, so researchers are hoping to tag at least 10 percent of the population in order to get as much reliable data as they can.
Dugongs, however, present a bit of a challenge when it comes to tagging them. Although you might think it would be relatively easy considering how slow and docile they are, they need to be awake during tagging.
“Attaching the tracking devices required lots of planning and careful preparation,” Trotzuk continued. “Weather, tides, and chance all played their part. The Bazaruto team was fortunate to learn from the expert team at James Cook University and this transfer of skills will be vitally important for the future – six of the park’s locally employed staff were trained to carry out the capture, tagging, and sampling of dugongs. This tagging exercise is a first for Africa and the Bazaruto team now has the skills needed to continue these efforts.”
Not only is saving the dugong population important to the dugongs, it’s important for much of the ecosystem in East Africa.
“Dugongs support the health of seagrass meadows by grazing preferentially on certain species,” Trotzuk explained. “Seagrass meadows are critically important in East Africa for fisheries, which provide economic livelihoods and food security for coastal communities, and carbon sequestration.”
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