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THE VANISHING MERMAID
OVER THE YEARS, THE DUGONG HAS INSPIRED
MANY A MYTHICAL TALE, BUT NOW IT’S IN DANGER OF
BECOMING NOTHING BUT A STORY OF THE PAST.
by
JACK BOULWARE
illustration by
OKSANA BADRAK
 FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, sailors reported ocean sightings of beautiful fish-tailed women frolicking in the waves, singing sweet music, and luring men to a briny demise. Ideas about the creatures have been perpetuated through the centuries -- in everything from Homer’s Odyssey to Arabian Nights to a number of Disney films -- by great storytellers who’ve captivated audiences around the world with mermaid mythology. The spectacle of young women swimming in mermaid costumes remains a staple of Florida tourist shows. And a mermaid image even appears in the Starbucks logo. No scaly-tailed seductress actually exists, of course. Instead, historians believe that the ancient sailors were enthralled by a strange aquatic creature that, although 10 feet long and 800 pounds, apparently reminded them of a woman.
Known as a dugong, the animal exists in isolated colonies scattered throughout the oceans. But it may not exist for long, considering that it’s listed variously as endangered, rare, depleted, and extinct. It’s one of the planet’s least-understood creatures.
Fossils date the dugong’s origins back to 50 million years ago, but mankind’s knowledge of the animal is practically zero. Aside from the locations dugongs have been sighted at, where they live remains a mystery, as does the exact number of them that are left. Aerial surveys of dugong populations show that their numbers are on a steep downhill slide. Scientists are saying it’s time we start to pay more attention to dugongs, the original mermaids of the seas, before they’re all gone.
DUGONGS BELONG TO the scientific order Sirenia, which is named for the sirens of ancient Greek mythology, who tried to lure sailors onto their island with love songs. Sirenia comprises a tiny group of four living species that includes the three varieties of manatees and the dugong, as well as the Steller’s sea cow, which was hunted to extinction in the 1700s.
The dugong evolved separately from its cousins, developing a unique tail and a set of tusks, and it is a very picky eater, limiting its diet to specific sea grasses from the ocean bottom in warm, shallow coastal waters. A prehistoric freak of nature, the dugong is the world’s only plant-eating mammal specific to the ocean. It possesses a strange, bulbous snout; little eyes; and what looks like a peculiar smile. Its eyesight is poor, but its hearing is acute. It seems to communicate via odd little chirping sounds. And although dugongs can live to a maximum age of about 70, they reproduce very slowly and tend to swim alone except when feeding or nursing.
Dugong means “sea cow” in Tagalog, but the animal is not specific to the Philippines. Dugongs are found in small numbers throughout the tropics and subtropics, with the larger populations living near Australia and the land masses in the Arabian Gulf. In many areas, such as Mauritius, Madagascar, and the Maldives, the sea creature is already considered extinct.
“They’re bizarre,” admits Australian scientist Helene Marsh, PhD, professor of Tropical Environmental Studies & Geography at James Cook University, who has studied dugongs for 30 years and is considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on them. “They’re a bit like a manatee … [or] they might be considered similar to a walrus. But, yes, they are very weird. Their closest terrestrial relative is the elephant. If you look at their internal anatomy, particularly the way their reproductive system works, they’re very similar.”
FOR CENTURIES, THE dugong has been hunted by indigenous people, but it has not been considered endangered until recently. Many of those who hunt dugongs believe that certain parts of the animal possess special powers: In Thai communities, dugong tears are reputed to be an aphrodisiac; in Malaysia, dugong teeth are thought to cure asthma; Indonesian men believe that eating dugong meat attracts women; and some Kenyan communities will even smoke the dugong’s burned bones for medicinal purposes.
The dugong’s numbers began their plummet in the 1960s as development of coastal areas and resort construction started disrupting the animal’s foraging habitats. Deforestation and industrial pollution began affecting the dugong’s primary food supply of sea grasses, and modern fishing techniques like gill netting increased the fatality rate. In 2002, after compiling research from 37 countries, Marsh published a detailed action plan for dugong preservation. It’s an uphill battle, she says, because only a handful of governments are wealthy -- and modernized -- enough to educate locals and enforce conservation.
Most nations have banned the killing of dugongs, but in many small villages on isolated islands, people still hunt them, either by using nets or spears or harpoons. Scientists who study dugongs have begun to visit those isolated villages in an attempt to explain to locals the urgency of preservation as well as to determine population counts.
“We’ve done quite a bit of work with indigenous people, trying to look at how community-based management of harvests can be established,” says Marsh. “[We’re] also working with conservation-management agencies to try and minimize the impact of incidental drowning in fishing nets.”
A few locations also promote dugong awareness by offering eco-tourism interactions in the water. Dugong Dive Center, in the Philippines region of Palawan, takes tourists on scuba and snorkel excursions to see dugongs along the coast of Busuanga. Similar opportunities can be found in Vanuatu, in the Sabah state of Malaysia, and in the Christmas Island territory off the coast of Australia.
The semidomesticated dugongs in those places are friendly, but their behavior isn’t typical -- most dugongs tend to be isolated animals. “The wild animals -- they’re quite wary,” says Marsh. “They can be quite curious, but it’s all done on their terms.”
There are also a few animals currently on display in aquariums in Australia, Japan, and Singapore. Unfortunately, though, unlike manatees, dugongs do not do well in captivity, and they’ve never bred successfully in a tank. In many regions, there isn’t much time left for the dugong. Indonesia’s population dropped from 10,000 to just 1,000 in 20 years, and the mammal is expected to soon become extinct in the waters of Taiwan, Japan, China, and East Africa. Young people in Madagascar no longer even know the word for dugong in their language.
The simplest -- yet possibly the hardest -- answer to dugong survival is to change human behavior. Respecting the dugong’s habitat and reducing unnecessary hunting are the first steps to preventing the extinction of the original mermaid of the sea.
JACK BOULWARE is based in San Francisco and writes regularly for a variety of publications, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Playboy, and Salon.com. He is a cofounder of San Francisco’s annual Litquake literary festival.
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