Okinawa, the dugong’s last hope

The problems facing wildlife conservation appear to be the same everywhere, every time. Small populations of endangered wildlife; a small group of concerned citizens fighting an uphill, lonely battle and an unconcerned political system that refuses to look beyond short-term commercial benefits or military and security interests.

So-called developing countries

This one is the same, and yet there are surprises. Not because it has succeeded, but because of its context. It is about a few dugongs pitched against the combined might of Japanese economic and political interests and the military might of the United States. The setting is not one of the so-called developing countries from Africa, Asia or Latin America, but the very heart of one of the world’s richest countries Japan itself.

It is in Okinawa, located just east of the main Asian continent and forming the southern most island group of Japan. Called the Ryuku Islands in ancient times, this archipelago of 160-odd islands is unique.

It is the only part of Japan that lies in the subtropical zone where mean annual temperatures hover around a comfortable 22 C. The maritime environment is greatly influenced by the warm Kuroshio current and the northern part of the island called Yambaru is particularly rich in bio-diversity and endemic fauna like the Pryer’s Woodpecker and the Okinawa Rail. The oceans are rich with sea grass beds, coral reefs and a variety of marine life. Some even call these islands the “Galapagos of the Orient”.

And it is in these oceans that live a very small and important population of the slow moving marine mammal, the dugong (Dugong dugon).

Dugongs are found in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian Ocean and the Western Pacific, with an estimated global population of 100,000.

Nearly 80 percent of these are found around Australia, the rest being scattered in various parts. This is where Okinawa is crucial. The waters off Okinawa are the northern most home of the dugong; this population is considered the most isolated in the world and is so threatened that it has been classified as being near extinct. Little is known about this population, but it is estimated that its number does not exceed 50. It is as endangered an animal population as can be and yet the authorities refuse to recognise the issue.

Till very recently it was not even known if dugongs did live around Okinawa.

Every time there was a report of a dugong killed by a fishing net or stranded on the shore it was thought that the animal would have lost its way from its habitat in the Philippines, drifted towards Okinawa and met its unfortunate end.

It was only in the late 1970s that the Dugong Network Okinawa (DNO) initiated surveys to study the presence of the dugongs and the status of the grass beds on which they feed. The surveys have been intensified in more recent years with the use of helicopters. In 1998, dugongs were spotted on 53 different occasions and in April 1999, the largest number of six animals were seen in a short span of six minutes during one such survey.

In 1998 there were also a couple of cases of newborn dugongs being found entangled and dead in fishing nets, unfortunate, but proof nevertheless, that they do breed in the waters off Okinawa.

Higashionna Takuma.

Death by being caught in fishing nets here is a very serious problem, with six such cases being reported in the decade of the 1990s alone.

There are other threats too. A study conducted in 1998 revealed that the ocean beds were contaminated by organic matter and sulphuric compounds, likely to damage the seagrass beds, the main source of dugong food. Red soil erosion and run off into the sea from the islands is another problem, as is large-scale American military activity. These include large scale landing practice using amphibious vehicles, oil and sound pollution and the exploding of unexploded and submerged shells, remnants of World War II.

The biggest threat however comes, as discussed earlier, from a system that is blind to the needs of these endangered dugongs. It is important to note in this context that there is massive American military presence in Okinawa.

The Okinawa prefecture was in fact under direct U.S. Military administration from 1945 to 1972, when it was handed over to the Japanese.

“Despite significant changes in the international politico-economic environment in the Asia-Pacific region since the 1970s”, explains Dr.

Hiroki Kakazu of the Department of Sustainable Development, Nihon University, “Okinawa’s geo-military position as the `Keystone of the Pacific’ has remained almost unchanged.” Even today, nearly 20 percent of the land mass of Okinawa is under direct occupation of the American military and though Okinawa accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japan’s total landmass, 75 percent of all American Military base facilities in this country are concentrated here.

It is one such plan of the American Military that poses the biggest threat for the survival of the dugongs of Okinawa: the proposed relocation of the existing U.S. Futenma Air Station in Okinawa to the coastal area of Henoko.

Strict nature conservation

This area on the eastern coast of Okinawa is where the largest sea grass beds are found and it is the most favoured habitat of a number of species of marine life, including the dugong.

The 1998 “Guideline for Nature Conservation” of the Okinawa Prefectural Government (OPJ) has in fact listed the coastal waters off Henoko as Rank I, an “area where strict nature conservation is needed”.

Nothing of all this has however prevented the Japanese and U.S. Governments from suggesting the creation of a U.S. Marine Corps sea based air base off Henoko.

Dawn.com