Dugongs are large marine herbivores dependent on seagrass meadows that are declining rapidly due to coastal development, water quality degradation, and boat strikes, threatening both populations and individual welfare.
Dugong welfare is inextricably linked to the condition of seagrass ecosystems. When seagrass meadows are degraded or destroyed, dugongs must travel farther to find adequate food, experiencing nutritional stress and energy deficit. Boat strikes cause blunt trauma and propeller injuries that are often fatal or cause lasting disability. Entanglement in shark nets set for beach protection and in fishing gillnets causes drowning deaths. The slow reproductive rate of dugongs means that any significant mortality rate leads to population decline over time, with successive generations of individuals experiencing increasingly degraded habitats.