Dugongs, the closest living relatives of the extinct Steller sea cow, depend entirely on seagrass meadows that are being destroyed by coastal development, runoff, and climate change.
Dugongs deprived of seagrass habitat face malnutrition from inability to meet their substantial daily food requirements. Injured dugongs from watercraft strikes suffer from propeller wounds similar to manatees, with many surviving with permanent injuries. Dugongs caught in fishing nets drown quickly but die with significant distress during the entanglement period. Their extremely slow reproductive rate means population recovery from any significant mortality is measured in decades, making welfare protection of individual animals directly important to species survival.