Dugongs are vulnerable marine mammals that depend entirely on seagrass meadows for food, making seagrass decline a direct welfare threat to individual animals and populations.
Dugongs cannot survive without adequate seagrass and cannot easily relocate when meadows collapse. Animals starving from seagrass loss experience gradual nutritional decline over weeks or months before death. Boat propeller strikes cause severe lacerations that, when not immediately fatal, result in prolonged suffering from infection and reduced swimming ability. Dugongs caught in fishing nets drown within minutes, a rapid but highly stressful death for animals that must surface frequently to breathe.