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  Yahoo News 15 Feb 07
Thailand struggles to save rare dugong
by Charlotte McDonald-Gibson

HAT CHAO MAI MARINE PARK, Thailand (AFP) - Gathered by their boats chatting about dugong, a rare marine mammal found in the waters off Thailand, fishermen in southern Trang province get a faraway look in their eyes, then lick their lips. "Delicious!" declares one fisherman, slapping his thigh and grinning. "Better than beef," chirps up another, looking out to the calm, shallow sea which is home to the majority of Thailand's 250 remaining dugong, also known as sea cows.

But it has been about 10 years since these men feasted on the flesh of the shy endangered creatures whose name derives from the Malay word for mermaid and whose tears are said to bewitch women.

These days, it is dugong conservation, not consumption, that concerns small fishing communities in this quiet province on Thailand's Andaman coast, about 830 kilometres (515 miles) south of Bangkok.

The mammals, which can reach up to 400 kilograms (880 pounds) in weight and four metres (13 feet) in length and whose distant ancestor is the ancient elephant, used to be abundant in Thailand's waters.

But hunting, destructive fishing practices and environmental degradation have made them a rare sight, and now creeping mass tourism and development are threatening the future of this gentle species.

"It is very difficult to see a good future for dugong, because there are many threats and many problems for the degradation of costal resources," says Pisit Charnsnoh, founder of local conservation organisation Yadfon.

A survey of dugong by the Department of Marine and Costal Resources last November found about 200 in the Andaman Sea, and just 50 in the Gulf of Thailand. Although there are no benchmark figures for a comparison, as no one surveyed the animals in the past, marine experts agree there has been a drastic decline in numbers.

Phuket Marine Biological Centre's Kanjana Adulyanukosol, who carried out the survey, says 150 dugong live in Trang, where sea grass, the dugong's preferred food, is still abundant and development has been restrained.

But the determination of the tourism industry to search out deserted stretches of sand and build hotels is bringing larger boats to the waters where dugong graze, further disturbing and polluting their environment.

The first five-star resort opened in Hat Chao Mai National Marine Park in 2005. "If we don't have any plan, it will change a lot for the tourists and it will be like Phuket," warns Kanjana, adding that her department is currently drawing up a strategy to prevent that from happening.

Pisit also worries that without proper management, Trang's delicate eco-system, which includes bio-diverse mangrove swamps, will be at risk.

"Over tourism is like the over harvesting of fish," says Pisit, who has won international awards for his work preserving coastal eco-systems and helping local communities.

When he first arrived in Trang in 1985, fishermen were using dynamite, poison and push-nets which scrape along the sea bed ripping up everything in their path, and dugong were frequently turning up dead on the beaches.

Yahad Hawa, a 50-year-old fisherman and boat builder from Chao Mai village, explains that the appearance of commercial fishing trawlers two decades ago forced them to turn to harmful fishing practices to compete.

"At the beginning, the catch was very good, a lot of shrimp," he says. "But only five years later the catch was so bad people had to buy canned fish."

Pisit's Yadfon Association, which is partly funded by French aid organisation Secours Populaire Francais (French Popular Relief), sent young conservationists to live with the fisherman and explain the benefits of sustainable fishing.

Yahad quickly gave up the push-nets and became an environmental activist, and fondly relays folk tales of the dugong. One local legend tells of a pregnant woman craving the taste of sea grass, who heads out to sea to collect it but drowns in the rising tide. Her distraught husband searches along the coast for his love, and eventually as night falls a dugong appears, and tells him that she is in fact his wife, and if he ever needs her all he has to do is plant a wooden pole in the sea.

Another tale tells of how dugongs' teardrops can be made into a love potion, but the peaceful mammal has become a victim of its own mythical status. Yahad says the bones and blood of dugong are used for traditional medicine and can fetch up to 10,000 baht (290 dollars), while the males' tusks are used to drive away bad sea spirits.

He insists that when fisherman accidently catch dugong now, they release them instead of cutting them up and consuming them, while push-nets have been banned and commercial trawlers must stay three kilometres (two miles) off shore.

But Pisit says that enforcement of these laws is lax, and the government must restrict commercial and tourist development if the dugong are to survive. "If we continue in this destructive manner, the dugong does not have hope," he says.
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