by Ma. Kristina E. Cassion
Philippine Daily Inquirer
October 21, 2001

Swimming with the tide after feeding on the dense sea grass near the shore of the Mahaba Island in Hinatuan, Surigao del Sur, a baby dugong got separated from its mother and unwittingly entrapped itself inside a fish corral. Distressed and wailing loudly, the baby dugong tried to free itself from the entanglement. Fishers who went to see their day’s catch instead found the animal nearly unconscious and brought it ashore. An argument ensued among themselves over whether it was a dugong they had found because of its size.

“The usual dugong they see are matured ones, with breasts for females or protruding sex organs for the males. What they found had none, but I insisted it was a baby dugong.” Says Gemma Gades, president of the Ladies United with Men for Development (LUMOT), a local people’s organization.

Concluding that it was not a dugong after all, the fishers pounded on the head of the helpless animal till it died. They immediately slaughtered it and sold the meat in the neighborhood at P60 per kilo.

LUMOT wanted to press charges against the butchers but was worn over by neighborly feelings. Instead, Gades cautioned them not to do it again.

The incident happened on April 21 and it was only one of a series of baby dugong killings. Rowan Bryne, an Irish marine and freshwater biologist of the Voluntary Service Overseas Philippines (VSOP) who also works for the Center for Empowerment and Resource Development (CERD) in Hinatuan, had documented the slaughter of six baby dugongs from October last year to October 15 this year.

The dugongs, locally known as duyongs, have been sighted off Hinatuan since 1950, according to existing records, and possibly even earlier. They feed on the thick sea grass all over Hinatuan Bay. According to Byrne, the dugongs frequent two areas – the feeding zone, where they are usually seen by fishers, and the safe zone, where they hide for a few days since they do not stay in the same area.

They are seen more frequently off the coastal barangays of Loyola, Mahaba, Langka, Portlamon, Mamaoa, Talisay and Pangasinan, which are either established fish sanctuaries or mangrove reforestation sites. Fishers were reported to have seen the dugongs enter in the morning and leave in the afternoon with the ebb and flow of the tide.

According to other reports, the dugongs are also frequently seen three days before the full moon every month around the Pangasinan and Portlamon areas. Byrne suspects that the other areas comprise their feeding zone, and Talisayan is probably the safe zone where they can hide in the deep waters.

The dugongs cover a small territory, especially in both shallow and not so deep waters that provide them food and protection from predators like sharks.

But the problem is, according to Byrne, they also need protection in in-shore waters where man is predominant predator, the reason for their dwindling number. With around a hundred in 1950, possibly more before that, the dugong population has since been decreasing. They have become victims of illegal fishing methods, such as dynamite and cyanide fishing, extensive use of fish corrals, illegal fine mesh net fishing in protected areas, and over expansion of fishponds. Byrne estimates the present number to be 40 to 50.

In the past decades, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources assumed that the dugongs had become extinct in Surigao, citing no additional reports of sightings. This was contained in its manual on “Dugongs of the Philippines: A Report of the Joint Dugong Research and Conservation Program.” This was why, Byrne says, no endeavors were initiated to protect or preserve the globally endangered dugong species in the Surigao region, let alone in Hinatuan.

National government agencies and the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), which Byrne contacted, acknowledged that they were unaware of the presence of dugongs in the Hinatuan area. They stated they had finished recent surveys, 200 kilometers short south of Hinatuan, thus missing the whole area. They stopped the survey work because sightings were no longer being reported.

But according to Byrne, for a population that was once thought to be extinct, the dugongs have survived and appeared to have reached a”population equilibrium” before last year.

MYTHS AND CURES

Dugongs, with their fleshy snouts, big rounded bodies and gentle ways, and their dependence on aquatic plants, have always been likened to cows. Thus, they are commonly called “sea cows”. The dugong is a truly unique animal, being the only herbivorous mammal today, whose preferred habitat in the sea.

An adult can grow to more than three meters long (size ranges from 2.4 to 2.7 meters) and can weight more than 400 kilograms. Newly born calves are slightly over a meter long and weight 20 to 35 kg.

Myths abound from around the world about the first dugong. Two are popular in Hinatuan. Lito Ligurbio, 20, recalls his father telling him that the first dugong was a man, who was known to curse anyone and everything. Finally, the gods got tired of his curses and struck him with lightning. They transformed him into a man like creature with a protruding sex organ and shrimp’s tail for feet.

Another version is that of the mother of Lola Paz Legarbio’s. Legarbio recalls being told that the first dugong was a woman named Maria. While she and their baby were at sea, her husband suddenly got angry with Maria and pushed her into the waters with her child in her arms. This could explain why a female dugong is usually seen breastfeeding her baby.

True or not, local fishers fervently believe these stories. “It really is like a man. If you slice one of its fins, you will see it resembles our hands,” insists young Lito.

Dugongs are not only prized for its meat that, they say tastes like beef, but also for its medicinal properties. Ricksho Uriarte, 60, says the sex organ of a male dugong can cure a man with umpawak, a disease of the male sex organ.
The tusk, when pulverized and swallowed, is said to cure severe vomiting and diarrhea. Even its bones were said to have many medicinal values.

SEA BIO-DIVERSITY

Dugongs not only taste good and can cure many illnesses, but they also help keep a balance in marine bio-diversity. According to Byrne, dugongs comprise the second stage of the sea’s food triangle or food web. The sea grass, surviving through photosynthesis, is eaten by the dugongs, the grazers. The animals eat a lot of low nutrient food (sea grasses), so they help regulate the growth of sea grass. In turn, their wastes are regenerated for fishes to feed on.

“It’s like cow’s wastes that fertilizers the field. But when dugongs are destroyed, you will have a stage missing in the pyramid and these can have adverse effects. It’s like destroying the second stage of the pyramid of Egypt and the whole structure will fall down. “Byrne points out.

He cautions that if the second stage of the chain is cancelled, there will be high sea grass growths and will be elements that will go out of control. There will be no grazers but excessive sea grass and algae growth.

HOPE

With six baby dugongs already killed and the fact that female dugongs reproduce only every three to seven years, Byrne is apprehensive if the population will even reach 2005. Despite this, Byrne says, the fact that the dugongs come to Hinatuan goes to show that the place has good resources and good coastal quality of water.

The seven fish sanctuaries and six mangrove reforestation areas established by the CERD in Hinatuan Bay bouy up hope for the dugongs. Byrne says mangroves help filter the water for sea grass and fish corrals to survive. Fish sanctuaries, in turn, give it chance for the fish population to recover from over exploitation.

Still there are dangers for these marine sanctuaries, such as quarrying operations in Portlamon that contribute to heavy sedimentation in the Hinatuan Bay. This will eventually choke the sea grass and fish corrals.

Corrals near the shores of the islands endanger the lives of baby dugongs. These are permanent structures embedded in the sea bottom and left for how many days by fishers. Dugongs caught in corrals eventually die because of drowning as the tide rises. The most dangerous, however, are the mining operations in Hinatuan. Two companies are already operating there – one owned by Endalecio Elargo and the Hinatuan Mining Co. The list is getting longer with the pending applications with the DENR of the Robert Cement Mining Corp., Carlosa Mining Corp., Iraq Mining Corp., and the Golden Falcon Mining Corp.

Byrne and CERD are all running against time to establish the safe zones of the dugongs after the feeding zones have already been established. They seek to establish these areas as dugong sanctuaries and to lobby for the regulation of fish corrals within the sanctuaries.

Is extinction inevitable? Maybe not, but immediate and drastic actions are needed. Man-made threats may well be the end of the dugongs. Extinction is forever.