Dugongs are large marine herbivores entirely dependent on seagrass meadows that are disappearing due to coastal development, pollution, and climate change, threatening their survival and wellbeing.
Dugongs that cannot find sufficient seagrass face chronic nutritional stress, spending more time and energy searching for food. Malnourished animals are more vulnerable to disease and have reduced reproductive success. Boat strikes are a significant welfare problem — injured dugongs that survive may live with chronic pain from propeller wounds or mobility-impairing injuries. Entanglement in fishing nets causes drowning, as dugongs must surface to breathe. The combination of slow reproduction, specialized diet, and multiple human-caused threats makes dugong populations particularly vulnerable to welfare crises from which recovery is measured in decades.