A new study finds the dugong hasn't been seen in China for over 20 years.
The dugong
is a cousin of the manatee. They live in coastal waters and eat sea grass, but unlike their manatee cousins, they don’t travel to freshwater areas and they have a dolphin-like tails. They’ve also just been declared functionally extinct in the waters surrounding China, a new study reports., there has been no sighting of a dugong in Chinese waters since 2008. Researchers surveyed fishing communities — mainly those who fished as their main source of income.
This information, combined with historical dugong records, indicates that there has been no scientific field observation of a dugong since 2000. It appears that the dugong no longer inhabits Chinese waters. Though it is possible that a few may still be left in the area. According to the study, dugong populations peaked in the area in the 1960s. However, boating collisions, habitat loss, fishing bycatch and other human interactions have caused the population to steadily drop since 1975. Even with conservation efforts in place, the populations were still depleted, serving as a sobering reminder of just how quickly extinction can happen, the study authors say.
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