Whale Sharks

Category: News | Date: Feb 13 2009 | By: whalesharks

Dugong find in Kiunga Marine National Reserve

The news filtered through the village, in disbelieving whispers that a dugong”nguva” had been caught in one of fishermen gillnets. There was a palpable but restrained sense of excitement in Kiunga village. Then fishermen confirmed and identified whose nets had caught the dugong there was a pandemonium in the otherwise sleepy village.   Everyone who could walk (mostly women and children) made a beeline to the fish landing site to wait for the mysterious and extremely rare dugong.  

The last time a dugong was sighted in Lamu archipelago was in 2003 and it was already dead. The exciting part is that the fisherman in whose gillnet the baby dugong was caught said that the mother was in the vicinity. This indicates that there is a breeding dugong population north of Kiunga Marine National Reserve   presenting and opportunity as well as a challenge to the conservation of these rare sea cow.   It interesting to note that although there have been anecdotal sightings of dugongs along the coast especially in Shimoni and Kisite areas at the southern coast of Kenya dugong foraging grounds have not been exactly identified unlike in Kiunga where the dugong was entangled in a gillnet set  across sea grass beds.

The dugong is a subject to many lores and stories in the Bajuni culture such as the mermaids (dugongs are part of the mermaid lore and its believed and practiced that any fishermen who brought a female dugong to shore must be taken to the mosque to swear that he did not have carnal knowledge with it - this was mainly due to similarity of a female dugong with a woman body)

Conservation implications

The baby dugong entangled in the gill net indicates that there is a breeding population in Kiunga Marine National Reserve.  This brings to fore the need to develop conservation strategy for this esoteric sea mammal using a wealth of indigenous knowledge that could disappear forever if not integrated into mainstream policy and research.First and foremost the population needs to be verified, set up code of conduct for identified dugong foraging sites and regular monitoring and research to glean more information and knowledge about these mammals at this part of the world – Western Indian Ocean

Threats

The greatest threat to dugongs is the loss of their habitats (sea grass) due siltation and increase in nutrients from human activitiesFishing nets also pose a threat to dugongs as clearly shown by the entangled baby dugong in Kiunga. 

Dugong facts  

Along with the manatee and the now-extinct Steller’s Sea Cow, the dugong makes up the order Sirenia.

Dugongs are usually found in shallow waters protected from large waves and storms. Dugongs live for approximately 70 years. Female dugongs first breed between the ages of six and 17 years old. They produce calves every 2.5-5 years with a gestation period of one year. Dugongs reach adult size between 9 and 17 years of age.

Dugongs have an average size of 2.4 to 3 meters and weigh between 231 to 500 kilograms; they can stay underwater for approximately 6 minutes. Dugongs graze on underwater grasses day and night. Dugongs spend much of their time alone or in pairs, though they are sometimes seen gathered in large herds of a hundred animals.Dugongs are sought after for their meat, oil, skin, bones, and teeth. Dugongs are now legally protected throughout most of their range, but their populations are still in a tenuous state. Dugong can be found in warm coastal waters from East Africa to Australia, including the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Pacific. Dugongs are also highly migratory.

 Internationally, dugong are listed on Appendix I of the Conservation of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and on Appendix II of the Convention on Migratory Species (the CMS).

This report was sent to me by Mike Olendo, WWF Kiunga which is in Northern Kenya. We are all very excited because dugongs are so rare these days! We are hoping to put a programme together to see if we can tag some. It is encouraging to see that they are still around our coast. Thanks to Mike and his team for the write up and great photos!