However, their population spread was revealed to be extremely uneven in an August 2025\u00a0report, published by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) and\u00a0touted\u00a0as \u201coffering the most comprehensive global update on the status and conservation needs of dugongs in over two decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
By far the largest concentration of dugongs is in Australia, where an estimated 166,000 live in the country\u2019s coastal waters, the CMS report shows. Other hotspots include the Arabian Gulf, the Red Sea, and Indonesia, while around 300 dugongs live along the coast of Mozambique, their last stronghold in Africa.<\/p>\n
But elsewhere the picture is less healthy. The IUCN, the global wildlife conservation authority, has listed the dugong as globally vulnerable to extinction for more than 40 years now. Some jurisdictions, such as the French territory of New Caledonia and Japan\u2019s Nasei Islands, have listed the dugong as endangered. In 2022,\u00a0research\u00a0declared the species extinct in China.<\/p>\n
According to Helene Marsh, a professor of environmental sciences at Australia\u2019s James Cook University and the CMS report\u2019s lead author, global dugong numbers are certainly underestimated because most of their range has never been surveyed.<\/p>\n Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, could help fill the gaps as they take over from traditional surveying techniques that rely on human observations from light aircraft, Marsh told Mongabay in an email.<\/p>\n For instance, drones have recorded\u00a0huge dugong herds\u00a0of up to 1,200 individuals in the Persian Gulf, and drone footage picked up more than 200 in India\u2019s first\u00a0Dugong Conservation Reserve\u00a0in the southwestern state of Tamil Nadu.<\/p>\n \u201cDrones are becoming increasingly important, especially combined with AI,\u201d Marsh said, with algorithms processing huge numbers of drone-generated images and helping researchers estimate dugong numbers more accurately. Drones can also spot plumes of disturbed sediment that show where dugongs are feeding. To support this, scientists have developed correction factors for image processing, as even the highest-definition drone cameras can fail to penetrate the turbid waters where dugongs live.<\/p>\n This methodology can also identify little-known populations, according to Laura Mannocci, from French research institute MARBEC (Marine Biodiversity Exploitation & Conservation), which has three sites in southern France, as well as hubs in developing countries including Indonesia, Madagascar and the Comoros. \u201cDrone surveys can help us spot small local populations in countries where the species had only been seen rarely before,\u201d she told Mongabay in an interview.<\/p>\n Mannocci is currently trialing fixed-wing drones off the island of Mayotte, in the Mozambique Channel. With a 2-m (6.5-ft) wingspan, these are larger than quadcopters, which have become the staple of many scientific drone surveys, and can also fly farther and for longer, she said. Moreover, fixed-wing drones can still take off vertically, which is important when space is limited, such as during boat deployments.<\/p>\n Mannocci said she aims to use this new generation of drones to improve surveys in Indonesia, where dugongs remain largely unstudied. Akbar Ario Digdo, a researcher at Indonesia\u2019s Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), works on the project. In an interview with Mongabay, he said preliminary research at his university suggests Indonesia supports 1.6 million to 1.8 million hectares (4 million to 4.4 million acres) of seagrass beds \u2014 prime dugong habitat \u2014 along its extensive coastline and islands, which Digdo estimates may account for 20-30% of dugongs\u2019 global geographic range.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven the size of the seagrass ecosystems, I believe it is highly plausible that Indonesia is home to a significant proportion of the world\u2019s dugong population,\u201d said Digdo, who also chairs local conservation nonprofit YAPEKA.<\/p>\n Slow-moving and often lingering near the surface, dugongs are particularly vulnerable to human-caused threats such as collisions with boats, ensnarement in fishing gear, and pollution events such as oil spills. The current war in the Middle East is exacerbating the latter, with a risk of pollution from ships damaged during the conflict or stranded in the Persian Gulf.<\/p>\n Internationally, hunting of dugongs has decreased significantly in recent years, but other threats have grown, especially climate change and coastal development, which destroy the seagrass meadows where dugongs feed, Digdo said.<\/p>\n Their biological characteristics augment this vulnerability. Dugongs, which can live to 70 years, often take 10 years to reach maturity and calve only every three to seven years, making it hard for populations to recover from setbacks.<\/p>\n Monitoring the health of dugong herds is crucial, Mannocci said. She also uses drones to carry out aerial health checks, which allow her to collect data at scale and much more quickly than traditional methods. Under the conventional way of running health checks, \u201cdugongs were caught in the water and lifted on board boats and then some measurements were taken \u2026 and even some blubber samples,\u201d Mannocci said, \u201cbut that\u2019s so invasive.\u201d<\/p>\n Catching dugongs this way is also complex and costly, and only possible where there are large concentrations, such as in Australia, she said. In areas where they\u2019re threatened or their numbers are low, drones are an excellent solution, she added.<\/p>\n Mannocci\u2019s team has now carried out health checks on 272 individuals in 18 countries across the Indo-Pacific region. Drones take high-resolution videos of a dugong, and Mannocci\u2019s team then calculates its body condition index (BCI), the ratio of body width at the belly to total length. The higher the BCI, the better; plumpness is an excellent indicator of a dugong\u2019s health, she said.<\/p>\n In 2012,\u00a0studies\u00a0first recognized the importance of seagrass meadows as a carbon sink. Since then, the fortunes of seagrass and the dugong \u2014 and its close cousin the manatee (genus\u00a0Trichechus<\/em>) \u2014 have been bound together.<\/p>\n Dugongs feed exclusively on seagrass, consuming up to 30 kg (66 lbs) per day. But it\u2019s a symbiotic relationship, Digdo said. Dugongs have been described as cultivation grazers and marine ecosystem engineers, meaning that the way they feed helps maintain healthy seagrass meadows.<\/p>\n They \u201ceat like tractors,\u201d Digdo said \u2014 plowing forward, aerating the seabed, and creating openings where other species can take hold. Broken seagrass pieces spread in the current, colonizing new areas.<\/p>\n Although seagrass meadows cover only about 0.2% of the ocean, they store about 10% of oceanic carbon by trapping CO\u2082 in seabed sediments via their roots. This makes them highly effective at mitigating climate change.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever the seagrass is impacted, it has an impact on dugong health\u201d that can be picked up in BCI measurements, Mannocci said.<\/p>\n The BCI checks can serve as an early warning system, she said. If they show dugongs in an area are becoming thinner, with dwindling energy reserves, people can react quickly to address any threats, such as pollution or coastal development, that are impacting local seagrass meadows.<\/p>\n By the time surveys of dugong numbers show declining populations, it could be too late to act, as the seagrass may already be dead, she added.<\/p>\n Global efforts are now underway to save seagrass meadows, and at the same time to strengthen protections for the dugongs that maintain them. The CMS assessment, for instance, called for dugong habitat mapping to be incorporated into the\u00a02030 Seagrass Breakthrough, a global plan to halt seagrass loss and safeguard more than 16 million hectares (about 40 million acres) of the ecosystem. CMS has also\u00a0called for\u00a0better quantification of carbon storage by seagrass meadows that are used and managed by dugongs, to strengthen the rationale for conservation and restoration efforts.<\/p>\n Community groups are also supporting conservation efforts. In Australia\u2019s Queensland state, Marsh noted that Indigenous groups are signing legally binding traditional-use marine resource agreements with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and voluntarily regulating their right to hunt dugongs. \u201cWhen the seagrass has been damaged by extreme weather events, some groups ban hunting [altogether],\u201d Marsh said. Similar agreements have been developed in other parts of the dugongs\u2019 Australian range.<\/p>\n What\u2019s really important, Mannocci said, is \u201cstrong communication with the locals and sometimes trying to find alternative livelihoods for these fishermen who are using potentially harmful gear.\u201d<\/p>\n This\u2019s what\u2019s happening along Thailand\u2019s Andaman coast, where CMS backs the Save Andaman Network Foundation (SAN), a coalition that supports local coastal communities. SAN is providing alternative livelihoods for fishing-dependent communities and helping to reduce pressure on the dugongs\u2019 seagrass feeding grounds.<\/p>\n But conserving the seagrass isn\u2019t just about supporting dugongs. The meadows support a diverse range of fish and echinoderms such as sea urchins. Fished sustainably, \u201cthe seagrass beds are also very important for coastal people,\u201d Digdo said. \u201cThere is a lot of dependency on the seagrass fishery \u2026 for daily sustenance.\u201d<\/p>\n Lin, M., Turvey, S. T., Han, C., Huang, X., Mazaris, A. D., Liu, M., \u2026 Li, S. (2022). Functional extinction of dugongs in China.\u00a0Royal Society Open Science<\/em>,\u00a09<\/em>(8), 211994. doi:10.1098\/rsos.211994<\/a><\/p>\n Fourqurean, J. W., Duarte, C. M., Kennedy, H., Marb\u00e0, N., Holmer, M., Mateo, M. A., \u2026 Serrano, O. (2012). Seagrass ecosystems as a globally significant carbon stock.\u00a0Nature Geoscience<\/em>,\u00a05<\/em>(7), 505-509. doi:10.1038\/ngeo1477<\/a><\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2026\/04\/16143354\/Dugong-Dugong-dugon.-%C2%A9-carsten_renker-.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
Drones for dugongs<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Anthropocene threats<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The partnership between dugongs and seagrass<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Citations:<\/strong><\/h2>\n