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The song of "Mermaid"! No record of 14 years Dugongs have become functionally extinct in China

author:Beiqing Net

/ Functional Extinction /

Generally speaking, under natural conditions, the number of wild species is reduced to the point where it cannot continue to reproduce, and although there are still individuals, it is no longer possible to reproduce and expand the population. If it is not rescued urgently, it will lead to a state of "extinction in the wild".

/ Wild Extinction /

When a species or its subspecies is known to have survived only in captivity, or when its population needs to be wildtened before it can return to its historically existing location, it is classified as "wild extinction".

A legend of the "mermaid"

Dugongs are considered to be the prototype of "mermaids" in ancient times on the mainland called "fish people"

Dugong is a marine herbivorous mammal, about 3 meters long, weighing 300 to 500 kg, the longest life expectancy can reach more than 70 years old, mainly feeding on aquatic plants such as dichotomous algae and salt-loving grass. Its whole body is a treasure, the meat can be eaten and oiled, the bones can be used to carve things, and the skin can be used for leather. The mainland mainly lives in the tropical shallow seas of South China, and has been hunted by humans since 4,000 years ago.

Why is it called a "mermaid"? Dugongs have a gentle temperament and an elegant posture. Because it needs to surface regularly to breathe, and when breastfeeding, the female dugong holds the child on her chest with a pair of pectoral fins, and floats her upper body on the surface of the sea to feed her milk, which resembles a human form, so some biologists believe that the dugong is the prototype of the legendary "mermaid".

As early as the Wei and Jin dynasties, China began to circulate various legends about mermaids, also known as "fish people". In the "Book of Searching for God", it was once described: "There are fish people outside the South China Sea, and the water lives like a fish, and the weaving performance is not wasted." If his eyes cry, he can produce beads. ”

B The extinction of the "mermaid"

Because of its resemblance to that of a manatee and a whale-like tail that requires regular surface breathing, the gent-tempered dugong, a marine herbivorous mammal, is often mistaken for a "mermaid." On August 26, a topic about the "extinction of the mermaid prototype (dugong) in China" attracted the attention of netizens.

According to a study by scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Zoological Society of London and published in the Journal royal Society Open Science in the United Kingdom, Chinese dugongs have experienced rapid population collapse in recent decades. At present, the "mermaid prototype" dugong has been "functionally extinct" in China.

The study interviewed 66 fishing villages along the southern coast of China, including Hainan, Guangxi, Guangdong and Fujian, and according to the researchers, these sites covered all known dugongs in Chinese mainland waters, and the average date of the last sighting among the 788 people surveyed was 23.2 years ago.

According to public information, dugong is one of the oldest marine animals in the world, is a national level protected animal, and is listed in Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. In December 1999, a dead dugong was found stranded on the beach in the waters near the Guangxi Beihai Sea, which was the last individual to die found around the Hepu Dugong National Nature Reserve. The last record of a dugong in China was in 2008 in Dongfang City, Hainan Province.

C Will the "mermaid" return?

Hopefully, we'll see dugongs again in China in 5 years

What efforts has the mainland made to protect dugongs?

Zhou Jinfeng, secretary general of the China Green Development Council, told the Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter that first of all, we have carried out scientific communication to promote the mainstream of biodiversity. Because as a national first-level society, science popularization is our important work. We then send letters to the relevant departments and contact scientists in the dugong field at home and abroad to obtain their support and help. At the same time, we have also formulated a work plan for the dugong research group for the next three years, hoping that all sectors of society can participate in the reconstruction of our coastal "green waters and green mountains" through the re-introduction of dugongs.

According to reports, on August 9, the Dugong Research Group of the China Green Development Council held a working meeting and made a more comprehensive deployment of the work strategy of the Dugong Research Group in the next three years, covering the following aspects:

1. Study the dugong habitat and the current situation of the Dugong Reserve in the Beibu Bay of Guangxi, and strive to restore the dugong reserve to its ecology;

2. Study all dugong sanctuaries and dugong migration routes;

3. Propose to relevant countries and departments to "re-establish waterways" so that human activities such as shipping and fishing can avoid relevant routes as much as possible;

4. Work with the international community to carry out guided species re-introduction.

Zhou Jinfeng finally said: "I hope that through everyone's efforts, we can see dugongs again in China in 5 years." ”

Chengdu Business Daily- Red Star News reporter Luo Mengjie intern Li Longliang comprehensive report

Expert interviews

Dugongs have fallen somewhere between "functional extinction" and "wild extinction"

The disappearance of the ecosystems on which they depend will lead to extinction

On August 26, Zhou Jinfeng, secretary general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (hereinafter referred to as the "China Green Development Council"), told The Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News that in the past decade, no one has observed dugongs in China, and China's dugongs can be considered to be between "functional extinction" and "extinction in the wild".

Reporter: What are the criteria for judging an organism to be "functionally extinct"?

Zhou Jinfeng: "Functional extinction" generally means that wild species cannot sustain and continue to reproduce on their own, and if they are not rescued urgently, they will move towards a state of "wild extinction". Another theory is that wild species have their own responsibilities and functions in ecosystems, and if the number is too small to perform its function, it can be called "functional extinction".

Reporter: Why is it said that dugongs have been "functionally extinct" in China?

Zhou Jinfeng: At present, dugongs in China are in a state between "functional extinction" and "extinction in the wild". In the past ten years, in the process of conducting biodiversity surveys in the South China Sea, we have visited many relevant groups of people, such as experts, fishermen and conservationists. But the end result of the visit was that no one in China had observed the dugong anymore.

If further scientific expeditions still do not find dugongs, they risk being declared "extinct in the wild". Therefore, this year, we set up the Dugong Research Group of the China Green Development Council, and took the "re-introduction of dugong" as the main goal of the working group.

Reporter: The last time the dugong was discovered on the mainland was 14 years ago, what was the main reason for its drastic decline to functional extinction?

Zhou Jinfeng: First of all, the seagrass bed off the mainland is degrading and disappearing on a large scale. Because dugongs feed on seagrass, and the degradation of seagrass beds is associated with human activities. Humans discharge sewage offshore, and the chemicals in the sewage and the turbidity can cause harm to seagrass. Secondly, people's activities such as shipping, fishing, and sand mining in the offshore will affect the living environment of seagrass. Just as there is no grass on the lively street, there is no seagrass in the bustling and bustling seaside. Without seagrass, the dugong would not have come. In addition, early overfishing, as well as the impact of boats, were also factors contributing to the decline in dugong populations.

Reporter: In April 1986, the people's government of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region approved the establishment of the "Hepu Dugong Nature Reserve". In October 1992, the State Council approved the upgrade of it to a national nature reserve. That is to say, we have been protecting dugongs for a long time, why is the result still not optimistic?

Zhou Jinfeng: Nature reserves are not zoos, just build a cage. Although the dugong can be well protected in the protected area, if the surrounding ecosystem disappears, resulting in the rapid degradation, reduction or even collapse of its habitat, it will also lead to the extinction of the dugong.

So we believe that effective conservation is comprehensive protection, not just the protection of individual endangered species. What we want to protect is the natural ecology, because the ecosystem is more important than the species. Ecosystems carry species, species carry genes, which are the three levels of biodiversity conservation. So dugong sanctuaries not only protect dugongs, but also protect seagrasses.

Reporter: What is the distribution area of dugongs on the mainland and even in the world?

Zhou Jinfeng: In the world, dugong is a widely distributed marine organism. It is found in Australia, the Americas, Africa, and South Asia, mainly in tropical and subtropical waters. As for the mainland, it was originally found in the coastal waters of the southeastern provinces, mainly because there were a large amount of seagrass in those places before, the coastal waters were relatively shallow, the sunshine was relatively abundant, and the sea waters were relatively clean.

Dugongs are an important part of offshore ecosystems. At present, its functional extinction on the mainland is only a regional phenomenon, but there are still dugongs in other parts of the world, and it has not yet reached the standard of an endangered species, but only a vulnerable species.

The tragedy of animal extinction has been playing out all along, and how to find a balance between human development and biodiversity is a difficult task, but we must face the difficulties and find solutions to protect our common home.

Source: Chengdu Business Daily

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