Comment A giant, gentle sea creature belonging to the manatee family is now “functionally extinct” in China with no sightings recorded since 2008, a new study said Wednesday. The dugong, a strictly marine herbivorous mammal, is known to slowly roam the coasts of tropical and subtropical countries, feeding on sea grasses in shallow waters. They can grow up to 10 feet in length and weigh more than 1,000 pounds. However, according to physiologists from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the number of dugongs in the waters near mainland China has declined significantly since the 1970s – largely due to human activity. Saving the manatees — rescue by rescue, rehab by rehab The scientists’ research was published Wednesday in Britain’s Royal Society for Open Science. In a press release announcing the findings, the report’s authors said there is “strong evidence that this is the first functional extinction of a large mammal in China’s coastal waters,” where they have been spotted for hundreds of years. “Our new study shows strong evidence for the regional loss of another charismatic aquatic mammal in China – unfortunately, once again driven by unsustainable human activity,” said Samuel Turvey, professor and researcher at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology. The authors recommended that the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which maintains a global conservation “Red List,” reassess the regional status of the dugong species as critically endangered (possibly extinct) in all Chinese waters. Fishing, ship strikes and human-caused habitat loss were the main drivers of extinction, the authors said. Seagrass is a specific marine habitat that is “rapidly degraded by human impacts,” according to the release. China has made seagrass restoration and recovery efforts a “key conservation priority,” but researchers say the efforts may be too late. “The trash stay in water up to 10 meters and graze continuously,” said Heidi Ma, a postdoctoral researcher at ZSL’s Institute of Zoology and co-author of the report. “But there is a lot of competition for resources in these areas,” he said, adding that seagrass contains a high level of carbon and is an essential source of food and shelter for fish. Since 1988, China has classified the dugong as a “Grade 1 National Key Protected Animal,” a designation that technically gives it the highest level of protection.
