- The mammals were added to the Critically Endangered category on the IUCN Red List.
- Probably only less than ten are left along the Kenyan coast, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Image: IUCN
A rare sea mammal found mostly in Lamu has now been listed as critically endangered because it is almost becoming extinct.
The dugong, commonly known as "sea cow" and nguva in Kiswahili, survives on seagrass and probably only less than ten of them are left along the Kenyan coast, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service.
The mammals were added to the Critically Endangered category on the IUCN Red List, in an update released at the ongoing conference of parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Montreal.
Species that are listed as Critically Endangered are just one step from being declared extinct in the wild.
The IUCN said it believes in total there are at least 250 mature dugongs along the East African coast up to Mozambique.
The New Caledonia islands in the South Pacific host about 900 dugongs, which were listed as Endangered.
The IUCN said the primary threats to dugongs in East Africa are unintentional capture in fishing gear and boat injuries.
“Strengthening community-led fisheries governance and expanding work opportunities beyond fishing are key in East Africa, where marine ecosystems are fundamental to people’s food security and livelihoods,” said Evan Trotzuk, who led the East Africa Red List assessment.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species.
The last dugong sighted in Kenya was a carcass in Shanga-Ishakani area in Lamu East subcounty in September last year, and another carcass in Shanga Rubu island in Lamu East in April 2020.
Although they are strictly marine mammals, dugongs stay underwater for only about six minutes and must come to the surface to breathe.
IUCN added that in East Africa, oil and gas exploration and production, bottom trawling, chemical pollution and unauthorised coastal development are also damaging and destroying the seagrasses that dugongs depend on for food.
Experts said the update on IUCN’s red list reinforces the urgent call for a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework to protect nature, which is being discussed in Montreal.
“This update reinforces IUCN’s urgent call for a Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework that will be ambitious enough to cease destruction of our life support system and catalyse the necessary action and change to secure life on this planet,” said Dr Jane Smart, Director of IUCN’s Science and Data Centre.
The ongoing UN Biodiversity Conference has brought together delegates from 196 countries to discuss a plan to halt the decline of ecosystems, wildlife, and the life-supporting services they provide.
This meeting is popularly referred to as COP15 because it is the 15th conference of parties – or nations – that signed onto the 1992 UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
The United Nations says that currently more than one million species are threatened with extinction.
The proposed Global Biodiversity Framework being discussed is expected to stop or slow down this loss and will be in force until 2030.
No other animal or plant in Kenya has been added to the IUCN red list.
The Red List now includes 150,388 species, of which 42,108 are threatened with extinction. Over 1,550 of the 17,903 marine animals and plants assessed are at risk of extinction, with climate change impacting at least 41 per cent of threatened marine species.
It is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global extinction risk status of animal, fungus and plant species.
This story was produced as part of the 2022 CBD COP15 Fellowship organised by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.