A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林).
This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong.
Photo courtesy of a fisher
The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at the time, although he took images and videos of the animal.
The photos have made waves within the public as well as the marine biology community, both in Taiwan and Japan.
“Not just a legend! The beautiful myth reappears in Taiwan,” said Jeng Ming-hsiou (鄭明修), head of Academia Sinica’s biodiversity research center, referencing how dugongs are sometimes considered the origin of mermaid myths.
The most recent record of a dugong in Taiwan were remains found in 1986, later sent to a museum for preservation, Jeng said.
He said he had personally traveled to Japan to study the animals, but only briefly caught a glimpse of them, adding that Japanese researchers tracking dugongs would be very interested in this finding.
In modern Taiwanese history, there has been no record of live dugongs caught in the wild, Taiwan Cetacean Society secretary-general Tseng Cheng-tsung (曾鉦琮) said.
Finding one in Yilan is unexpected, Tseng said, adding that it may have originated in Okinawa and followed ocean currents and food to Taiwan.
Dugongs are related to manatees, although they differ in their tail structure, Tseng added.
They feed on seagrass and so mainly inhabit shallow waters in Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and Okinawa, meaning there is limited information on them in Taiwan, he added.
In the past, dugongs were hunted in large numbers for their skin, meat and bones, leading to a sharp decline in their population.
They now face severe issues around marine habitat loss.
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