Historically, dugongs were common in shallow coastal waters of East Malaysia and were hunted, particularly in Sabah. Today, their occurrences are rather occasional. Due to the unknown population status, this research is conducted to create and compiles information on dugong distribution and abundance, and highlight threats affecting the animals in the area.

Many older fishermen and villagers interviewed in Sabah, Labuan, and Lawas, Sarawak reported had seen live dugongs before. They indicated that dugong populations have declined significantly in the past few decades, however, they believed the animals are still presence in a very small number. Traditional hunting for meat, starvation, vessel collisions, dynamite fishing, entanglement in fishing gear, disease, and degradation of seagrass areas caused by sedimentation and pollution from coastal development and palm oil plantations are amongst the reasons given for the decline.

The July 2003 report says since January 2000, only 32 sightings of this once abundant sea mammal were recorded. Of these, only eight were of live animals at sea. The rest, 75 per cent, were dead having been entrapped and entangled in gillnets. "It is clear that dugongs are now critically endangered in Tanzania, and without immediate concerted conservation effort, they will almost certainly become nationally extinct in the near future," the report warns.
Dugongs, also called sea cows, are herbivorous mammals that live in shallow sheltered waters. They are descendants of terrestrial swamp browsers that lived about 55 million years ago. Their closest living relative is the elephant. Dugongs grow to 3.5m in length and to 400kg in adulthood, and live to about 70 years.

Dugongs were historically a prized source of protein and oil, which was used for cooking, waterproofing boats, and occassionally for treating a variety of ailments along the eastern Africa coast. They are believed to be the most endangered large mammal in Africa, with growing concern that they are faced with extinction in eastern Africa.
Tanzania's dugong population is estimated to be less than 100 individuals, a level so low that scientists doubt they can recover. In the 1960s, herds of 20 to 30 dugongs were frequently sighted along the Tanzanian coast, gillnet fishermen reporting capturing up to five dugongs in any given day. The situation has since changed dramatically. From the year 2000, eight to ten dugongs are captured every year in Tanzania.

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.