The dugong was reported to have stranded near the Tanjung Pengelih naval base in south-east Johor.
“It was a magnificent carcass. It had a full anatomy and was only slightly decomposed,” recalled Dr Affendi Yang Amri, who recently concluded a study of dugong (Dugong dugon) in Johor with other colleagues of the three-year-old centre. To these scientists who are embarking on a project to save the dugong, a fresh carcass is worth as much as a live specimen. They collected tissue samples and stomach contents from the carcass for analyses. These would shed light on the animal’s biology and cause of death, among others. To these Universiti Malaya Maritime Research Centre marine scientists who are embarking on a project to save the dugong, a fresh carcass is worth as much as a live specimen.
Head of UMMReC Prof Phang Siew Moi said the dead dugong was an adult that had enjoyed a long spell of sexual maturity. Old scars across its body indicated injuries sustained in defending its territory during mating. Confirmation of its age will be done through examination of the growth layers deposited on its tusks.
Dives in seagrass meadows provided proof of dugong presence in Sungai Johor. With its highly adapted mouth that is shaped like a lawn-mover, dugongs dig up the whole seagrass plant when feeding, thereby producing a distinctive, serpentine-like feeding trail. Sungai Johor, it seems, is a haven for dugongs, with its extensive seagrass beds occurring in exposed areas on the tidal flats. Three sites were surveyed. Feeding trails were documented in Tanjung Surat at the estuary of Sungai Lebam, a tributary of Sungai Johor and at Pasir Gogok, south of Tanjung Surat. The seagrass meadows here are dominated by Halophila ovalis, the soft, small-leaved seagrass which is a good food species for dugongs.
Surveys in villages on both banks of Sungai Johor brought the team to the burial site of a female carcass and the skeleton was retrieved and kept by the centre. The bones can provide information on the species through DNA analyses. The villager who buried the carcass claimed that the ill-fated female was pregnant as a foetus was found in its body.
The study identified habitat loss, sedimentation, incidental catches in fishing nets and kelong, boat-strikes, acoustic pollution, chemical pollution and diseases as threats to the dugong. The Sungai Johor basin is vulnerable to land clearance for plantation, industrial development and contamination from shipping activities. While it is not widely known that dugongs are hunted for its meat, oil, skin and tusk, interviews with villagers revealed that the animal was actively hunted in the past and the practice has not ceased.