Dugongs, Beloved Vegetarian ‘Mermaids,’ Declared Extinct Near China

Pour one out for the dugong right now—the bulbous but endearing undersea mammal has hit a worrying new benchmark of species decline. Scientists have declared the animal “functionally extinct” in a part of the South China Sea, in a study revealed within the journal Royal Society Open Science. Hunting, the fishing trade, aquaculture, and different human exercise that’s degraded the seagrass habitat is responsible, in line with the researchers.

Dugongs are the final surviving species of their scientific household; their closest dwelling kinfolk are manatees. They are thought to have been the inspiration for a number of the Pacific’s mermaid mythology. (Though the Pokémon Dewgong was most likely named after the real-world dugong, the animated critter appears to have extra in frequent with seals.) Dugongs additionally the world’s solely recognized marine mammal to be completely vegetarian, as even manatees have been recorded sometimes consuming fish. The light seagrass grazers stay and breed within the tropical and sub-tropical coastal waters of multiple regions, from East Africa and the Middle East into the South Pacific.

Now although, these singular “sea cows” appear to be swimming round in a single much less area, in line with the examine authors. By designating dugongs functionally extinct there, the scientists are saying the species is now not in a position to reproduce and preserve a long-term inhabitants within the space.

The analysis workforce—composed of scientists from the Chinese Academy of Science, England’s Zoological Society of London, and Aristotle University in Greece—reported that information of dugongs within the waters alongside the southernmost coast of China have declined sharply over the previous 50 years. Notably, they wrote, there are not any documented information of dugongs within the space after 2008, and there are not any “verified field observations” of the mammal after 2000. It’s “the first reported functional extinction of a large vertebrate in Chinese marine waters,” they added.

To come to this dismal conclusion, the examine authors reviewed the historic information. They additionally labored with a workforce of volunteers and interviewed 788 native fishermen. Only 5% of these surveyed reported ever having seen a dugong within the wild, and solely three responded that they’d seen one up to now 5 years, although these reported sightings couldn’t be verified. The scientists additionally famous that two of these three latest sightings occurred in an space missing the seagrass beds essential to help dugongs and that the people might have been drifters from the Philippine inhabitants.

“We acknowledge the possibility that a few surviving dugongs in Chinese coastal waters might have been undetected by respondents,” wrote the researchers. “However, our comprehensive assessment suggests that even if some individual dugongs still remain in Chinese waters, the dramatic population decline experienced by the species in recent decades is highly unlikely to be halted or reversed under current conditions.”

Habitat decline, seagrass loss, and looking are prone to blame for the species’ disappearance, in line with the scientists. Previous research has famous that fishing and fish farms have degraded essential seagrass ecosystems within the northern South China Sea. And globally, an estimated 7% of seagrass habitat is being misplaced yearly, in line with a 2020 UN report.

And the researchers reported that, between 1958 and 1976, 257 dugongs had been killed within the northern South China Sea for meals. Records cited by the scientists additionally indicated the animals are sometimes caught and killed as fishing trade bycatch.

Dugongs are listed as globally weak to extinction by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and are they legally protected in lots of international locations. Individuals can stay for greater than 70 years, however the species breeds slowly, making their restoration and safety further difficult.

Though dugongs stay on elsewhere, the disappearance of this distinctive species from one space is a sobering reminder of how simply and silently extinction can progress. “The message is alarming,” wrote the examine scientists. It’s a reminder that “effective population and habitat management are critically needed within dugong habitats elsewhere.”