Posted on 08/25/2022 11:23:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
Dugong swims with its nose touching a shoal of yellow fish
IMAGE SOURCE,PATRICK LOUISY
Researchers have declared a mammal related to the manatee - said to have inspired ancient tales of mermaids and sirens - extinct in China.
Only three people surveyed from coastal communities in China reported seeing the dugong in the past five years.
Known as the ocean's most gentle giant, the dugong's slow, relaxed behaviour is likely to have made it vulnerable to overfishing and shipping accidents.
It still exists elsewhere in the world but is facing similar threats.
Prof Samuel Turvey, from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), who co-authored the research study, said: "The likely disappearance of the dugong in China is a devastating loss."
Scientists at ZSL and the Chinese Academy of Science reviewed all historical data on where dugongs had previously been found in China.
They found there had been no verified sightings by scientists since 2000.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
If they can do this, they would be very safe and hard to find. There could be millions and no one would know.
When sailors were away from real women for long periods, anything starts to look like a possible date!/sarc
“OH THE HUGE DUGONG!”
“Asian countries are so heavily polluted (except Japan) that it is hard to describe.”
What, if any, Asian countries have you visited?
It’s cute - or it was...
Don’t ever say that in San Francisco......................😜
Sailors spent a looooong time at sea in those days.................😉
Asian countries visited: Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Nepal, Tibet, China, Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore. I should add that Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore were also fairly clean like Japan.
Well, these are the same guys that drank and sang sea songs.
Damn. No more Szechuan Dugong for dinner.
...with a side of stir-fried vegetables and steamed rice.
I prefer Kung Pao Dugong myself......................
I have no doubt that that was as tasty as the Szechuan version!
Malaysia is relatively clean also. But Thailand, the Philippines, HK/China - fuggetaboutit.
I know. Rivers of plastic flowing into the ocean. It amazes me that the Enviros criticize the USA, but the major rivers in Asia, probably Africa too, but I have not seen it myself in Africa, flow trash by the tons into the ocean. I have seen rivers in Asia where the trash was so dense that I cannot believe anything could live. Yet the environmentalists bash the USA.
I have never been to Malaysia. Northern Thailand is pretty clean even around Chiang Mai. Doi Intanon park is very nice. Around the south, especially Bangkok, it is like aa sewer in the waterways.
I’d have to be at sea a LONG TIME before I’d get turned on by that mermaid.
They're also extinct in New York City, Chicago, Omaha, and the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Extinction is an absolute and absolutes have no conditions. It's either "extinct" or it isn't. Dugongs aren't (extinct) but saying they're "extinct in China" is A LIE they reckon might might sway the hoople-heads into supporting their wackadoddle "Animals First, People Worst" legislation.
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