Dugongs, turtles under threat on Great Barrier Reef

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Dugongs, turtles under threat on Great Barrier Reef

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AUSTRALIA: July 7, 2003

 

 

CAIRNS, Australia - Populations of turtle and dugong, or seacow, are

dropping drastically around Australia's Great Barrier Reef because of

chemical runoff from farmland and overhunting by Aborigines, officials said.

 

 

 

" Dugongs and turtles have to be protected or they will be gone in my

children's time, " said Peter Guivarra, chairman of the Mapoon Aboriginal

Council on the western side of Cape York Peninsula.

 

Environment Minister David Kemp told a conference on the state of the

world's largest living structure that the flow of contaminants off the coast

of Queensland state into the reef had increased fourfold since European

colonisation of the continent.

 

" Dugong populations adjacent to Queensland's urban coasts are estimated to

be only three per cent of what they were in the 1960s, " Kemp said in the

northeastern city of Townsville.

 

" The number of nesting loggerhead turtles has declined between 50 and 80 per

cent, " he said.

 

Wildlife experts regard Australia as the " dugong capital " of the world.

 

A marine mammal weighing up to 500 kg (1,100 lb), the seacow is found in 37

countries but its numbers are declining in 20 of them, Helene Marsh, Head of

Environmental Science at James Cook University in Townsville, told Reuters.

 

Dugongs, which resemble large seals with bulbous heads, are listed by the

International Union for the Conservation of Nature as vulnerable to

extinction.

 

Extensive sugar cane farming, land clearing and urbanisation along the

Queensland coast is blamed for the rise of runoff into the ocean and

riverways, including chemicals and fertilisers.

 

Dugong numbers in Australia are under threat not just from environmental

degradation but also from indigenous hunters.

 

Aborigines have the right to kill limited turtle and dugong with a permit

for ceremonial purposes, in recognition of a 40,000-year-old custom.

 

It is illegal, however, to sell the meat of dugong and turtle, just as it is

unlawful to sell kangaroo or emu flesh.

 

But traditions are breaking down, a black market in dugong and turtle meat

has emerged and modern technology such as motorised boats has made it easier

to hunt the vulnerable dugong.

 

" In my day, we used to row boats, and the meat wasn't wasted. Now it's too

easy to get dugong and turtle with white man's technology, " said Gordon

Pablo, a respected elder of the Injinoo community at Bamaga, at the tip of

Cape York Peninsula.

 

Aboriginal elders said around 60 cattle in a herd of 100 migrating dugongs

were recently massacred for their breastbones.

 

 

Story by Eugenie Navarre

 

 

 

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE