05/04/2005 – WWF has initiated
a dugong conservation programme in the islands
off the Tanzanian coast, in an attempt to
protect one of the world’s most threatened
marine mammals.
The conservation programme is focusing its
conservation efforts in the waters of Mafia
Island — a group of five islands whose coral
reefs, sea grass beds, and mangroves host
some of the richest life on the east African
coast. Marine turtles, humpback and sperm
whales, 400 species of fish, a host of corals,
sponges, molluscs, starfish, sea urchins,
and sea cucumbers, and the occasional dugong,
all claim the waters as home.
WWF, together with the Born Free Foundation
and the Wildlife Conservation Society, is
working with fishing communities along the
coast to raise awareness of the dugong’s endangered
status and to help with animal sightings.
Dugongs are subject to a range of human threats,
including entanglement in fishing nets, loss
and degradation of important habitat such
as seagrass meadows, and collisions with boats.
In February 2005, a fishing crew from nearby
Koma Island caught two dugongs in their fishing
nets. Both had drowned. A female dugong was
also caught accidentally in the same area
a year earlier.
“These incidents highlight the importance
of this area as suitable dugong habitat as
well as providing further proof that they
do still occur in small numbers in Tanzania,”
said Godfrey Mokoki of the Mafia District
Fisheries Office.
Once abundant in Tanzanian waters, dugong
populations have declined dramatically by
over 90 per cent in the past 30–40 years.
Classified internationally as “vulnerable
to extinction”, the dugong is the most endangered
marine mammal in the Western Indian Ocean
region.
“The fact that several dugong captures have
been reported within the past 15 months signifies
a new level of awareness of the dugong’s dire
plight amongst coastal communities,” said
Joyce Bayona with the WWF Tanzania Programme
Office.
“Urgent measures are still needed to protect
these majestic seagrass-eating creatures before
they are gone forever. This can be achieved
through awareness and education campaigns,
establishment of dugong sanctuaries and restriction
of threatening fishing gears.”
NOTES:
• Dugongs, or sea cows as they are sometimes
called, are marine animals which can grow
to about 3m in length and weigh as much as
400kg. They Dugongs inhabit shallow, tropical
waters throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
• Individual dugongs can travel several hundred
miles in a few days, through the waters of
many different countries. Because they don't
stay within jurisdictional boundaries, WWF's
ecoregion approach is well-suited to address
these conservation issues and WWF has identified
the Eastern African Marine Ecoregion as one
of its priority conservation areas.
• The waters of Mafia Island Marine Park
are part of the East Africa Marine Ecoregion
(EAME), which runs for 4,600km down the east
African coast from southern Somalia to northeast
South Africa. The Ecoregion is one of the
most diverse coral, mangrove, and seagrass
complexes in the western Indian Ocean. It
includes an almost continuous fringing coral
reef along the coastline of Tanzania and Kenya
as well as one of the most important coastal
wetlands in East Africa, the 3,200ha of mangrove
forest in Tanzania's Rufiji Delta.
