"Thailand's Andaman Coast is home to one of the largest dugong populations in the world, with 273 of the plump marine mammals, sometimes called sea cows, estimated to be living there as of 2022. In recent years, though, more and more dead or stranded dugongs have been washing ashore. Now the Andaman Coast population may have fallen by more than half, experts say."
"I've been covering the extinction crisis facing the world's biodiversity for more than a decade, tracking vanishing species through forests and across the Arctic tundra, and witnessing the threats that face them. But the struggles of species that live below the water's surface are often only revealed when their lifeless bodies wash ashore. Even then, they tend to get less attention than their land-based counterparts; if a marine animal isn't blessed with a certain charisma, its extinction can happen out of human sight."
The Andaman Coast hosted an estimated 273 dugongs in 2022, but recent increases in dead and stranded animals suggest the population may have dropped by more than half. Numerous dugongs washing ashore and sightings in Phuket signal a worsening marine biodiversity crisis. A local photographer, Theerasak Saksritawee, uses drone imagery to document dugongs and aims to build public support through social media, reaching about 26,000 followers. Marine species declines are often hidden until carcasses appear on beaches, and less charismatic sea species frequently receive far less conservation attention than turtles or dolphins.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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