2019/03/05
An Urgent Appeal The Okinawa Dugong is in Imminent Threat of Extinction
From:
The Nature Conservation Society of Japan (Chief Director: Akira Kameyama)
The Northernmost Dugong Observation Team Zan (Rep: Masako Suzuki)nnn

The Dugong Network Okinawa (Secretary-General: Taro Hosokawa)
We appeal, as NGOs working to protect the Okinawa dugongs, for greater awarenessof the crisis faced by these animals due to the on-going construction of a US Marine base atHenoko, in Nago City, Okinawa. We are especially disturbed by the disappearance ofSpecimen A since construction of the base began, and call for special attention to theimminent threat of extinction faced by the Okinawa dugong.
The waters off Kayo, a town located on the eastern coast of Nago, approximately 10km
to the east of the construction site, has long been known to be home to dugongs; evenrecords of the town s history mention the animals. This marine area is believed to be usedby dugongs as a birthing place: in 1990, a baby dugong was accidentally caught in a gill-net
in this area; parents and a baby dugong were also sighted in the same area in 1998; andcourting behavior was observed in 1999. This area has long been an important breeding
place for the endangered Okinawa dugong.
We citizens began studying the dugong feeding traces in the area in 1998. Since 2007,
Team Zan has carried out a survey every year and during the past 20 years we have neverfailed to observe feeding traces there. Since 1998 we have sighted dugongs in several otherareas around Okinawa Island, but, in every one of those areas we eventually lost track of theanimals. In contrast, dugongs have been sighted throughout the year in the waters off Kayo.
Government surveys have obtained the same results. Taking into consideration theimportance of the Kayo waters for the survival of the dugong in Japan, we have evenrefrained from making the name Kayo public.
Specimen A
On November 11, 2018, we failed to observe any new feeding traces in the waters offKayo. Meanwhile, as reported by The Ryukyu Shimpo on December 3, 2018, the Okinawa
Defense Bureau had also not seen Specimen A since the end of October 2018; the Bureau smaterial presented to The Environment Watch Committee (EWC) on November 28, 2018
mentions this fact. We attempted, without success, to find new feeding traces in the area on
December 20, 22 and 23 of 2018 and again on January 13 and 20 of 2019.
The Okinawa Defense Bureau later uploaded to its website a document on the state of
implementation of the construction (Resource No. 4), previously presented at the January
22, 2019 meeting of the EWC (the 18th meeting of the committee). According to thismaterial, from August 2007 the Bureau carried out aerial surveys of the waters off theeastern coast of Nago as a part of its Environmental Impact Assessment and has continued
the survey after the EIA was completed; throughout the eleven years up to September 2018,a month before Specimen A ceased to be seen, the animal had been sighted continually. OnOctober 16 and 17, 2018, the Bureau carried out dugong feeding trace surveys of the seagrass colonies in the water off Kayo, finding 25 traces. However, the Bureau found no new
traces later and concluded that Specimen A stopped using the area.
In this document, however, the Bureau denies that construction was a causal factor in
the disappearance of Specimen A. The Bureau argues that while Specimen A remained inthe waters off Kayo when the noise and vibration caused by dumping large quantities ofrubble into the waters off Henoko was at its peak (between November 2017 and August2018), at the time the animal disappeared such disturbance had decreased.
The Bureau s denial is refuted by its own records: The Locations Around The
Construction Site Where Dugongs Were Sighted (pp. 86,87) contained in Resource No. 2:
the ex post facto Survey Report presented to the 17th meeting of the EWC on November 28,
2018. The latter material notes that since 2007, when the Bureau began surveying the area,Specimen A used to be seen frequently at the entrance of Oura Bay, a large area just west of
Kayo and adjacent to the construction site. However, as the material shows, sightings of theanimal in the bay became less frequent during 2015. Specimen A gradually moved awayfrom the waters off Henoko toward more south-eastern areas. Eventually, in 2017, theanimal moved to an area where no dugong had been sighted before. The year 2015 whenSpecimen A ceased to frequent Oura Bay, coincides with the period when the Bureau began
the marine part of the construction work and disturbed the area by deploying numerous
guard boats, placing huge concrete anchor blocks on the seabed, surrounding a large areawith buoyed fences, drilling into the sea-bed and building piers to contain landfill; it wasalso the period when the dugong Specimen C, frequently seen in the Bay until then, ceased
to be sighted. Furthermore, the year 2017, when Specimen A moved to an area where nodugong had been sighted before, coincided with when the Bureau began pier-building;heavily disturbing the area by dumping huge amounts of soil and rock into the sea. Judging
from these facts, we have to assume that both dugongs A and C were severely disturbed by
the construction and gradually moved away from their home areas. In June 2015, Specimen
C finally moved away from the construction area and in October 2018 Specimen A also
disappeared.
The Bureau states, concerning the behavior of Specimen A, in its preparatory
document for its EIA: “The animal was observed by the Ministry of the Environment in its
survey commencing in November 2003 not further than 5km away from Cape Abu or CapeBan.” The Bureau itself had emphasized that the specimen s habitat was limited to the area
off Kayo, but it was the Bureau s own construction work that drove the animal from its onlyhome.
The Ministry of the Environment conducted surveys of dugongs and the sea-grasscolonies around Okinawa Island from 2001 to 2005 for the purpose of establishingmeasures to protect dugongs. In November 2003, the Ministry first identified a specimen
with a notch in its tail fin; later named Specimen A by the Bureau in its EIA papers. During
the survey the Ministry sighted this animal seven times. The specimen was already maturewhen first sighted by the Ministry in November 2003. We began our own research in 1998,
when we found feeding traces in the Kayo water. The specimen must have been resident in
Kayo waters for at least the 20 years since 1998.
The MoE, during its survey, continually conducted filming from the air using radiocontrolled helicopters, a 24-hour watch from the shore and under-water monitoring using
the Manta-method, establishing the importance to dugongs of the waters off Kayo.
At the 159th session of the Diet, in 2004, the Ministry recognized that the small
population of dugong surviving in the waters around Okinawa Island satisfied therequirements for selection as a national rare wild species in the Endangered Species
Protection Law and in 2011 the Nago City council requested that the MoE and the Justice
Ministry designate the dugong as a national rare wild species. The MoE, however, declined
to make the designation, so the Okinawa dugong and its habitat are still, today, unprotectedby the law. The Ministry has long been aware of the endangered state of the Japanese
dugong and the importance of the Kayo waters as its habitat, and cannot escaperesponsibility for driving Specimen A from its long-standing home.
The dugong, expelled from its home, must now face competition with other dugongs forfeeding places in unfamiliar areas, where there is a risk of becoming tangled in fishing nets.

The Okinawa dugong, on the verge of extinction, is now more threatened than ever.
Specimen C

The MoE, during the above-mentioned survey from 2001 to 2005, concluded in July
2003 (and made public in 2004) that there were at least five surviving dugongs around
Okinawa Island. All five of them were considered mature. During 1998 and 2002 six
dugongs were found dead. The minimum number of the Okinawa dugongs, as of November
1998, therefore, must have been eleven. No effective dugong protection measures were put
in motion and, during the EIA conducted by the Okinawa Defense Bureau in 2008 (madepublic in 2009) only three dugongs were sighted. The three animals were designatedSpecimens A, B and C. Specimen A, as noted above, disappeared after the construction
began. The individuals B and C, considered to be mother and offspring, were formerly basedaround Kouri Island, situated in the north-western waters of Okinawa Island, and had
sometimes visited the eastern waters off Henoko and Oura Bay. Since 2009, Specimen C
seemed to have become independent and had been seen moving by itself (as reported by the2011 document of the Bureau). The latter animal often visited Oura Bay. During 2009 and2015 the Bureau acknowledged 49 feeding traces in Oura Bay; in the same period ourgroups found, in total, 238 feeding traces in the same area as reported in a 2018 paper by
Hosokawa. In the final document of the EIA (6-16-172; 2012) the Bureau admitted thatthese feeding traces were considered to be made by Specimen C. Despite being fully awareof the importance of Oura Bay as a feeding area for Specimen C, the Bureau had begun
building piers and, as a result, drove the animal away from our survey area. As noted above,
the animal has not been sighted since 2015.
Specimen B
Within the area around the Kouri Island where Specimen B is based, an unexplodedbomb, believed to be left over from the Pacific War, has been found. We warned theprefecture that if the bomb were disposed of in the usual way, i.e. by exploding it in the sea,
there was a risk of harming the dugongs as well as the coral-reef ecosystem, but noalternative method has yet been proposed. If the bomb were exploded in the water, it could
mean the end for the dugongs in the area.
Our Demands

We demand of the Okinawa Defense Bureau and the Ministry of the Environment, andrequest of the Okinawa Prefecture the following:1) The Okinawa Defense Bureau states, in the Environment Conservation Documentattached to the EIA, “After the construction work begins we shall watch for changes
in the dugong habitat. If any such change is observed we shall evaluate whether thechange is due to construction, and, if so, immediately reconsider the construction
method and take appropriate measures.”Though the Bureau continues to deny that disappearance of individuals A and C
was caused by the construction work the facts above make the connection obvious.
We demand that the Bureau halt the construction work immediately, and that theMinistry of the Environment direct the Bureau to halt the construction.
2) We demand that the Okinawa Defense Bureau set up a committee composed of fairand independent specialists, (not one like the ongoing Environment Watch
Committee who accepted donations from the base construction contractors) toinvestigate the affect of the construction on the state of the dugongs. The
investigation must be clear and transparent; the findings must be made public. As
members of such a committee we recommend Dr. Toshio Kasuya, Dr. Ellen Hines,
Dr. Amanda Hodgson, Dr. Helene Marsh, and the Marine Mammal Commission(https://www.mmc.gov/).
3) We demand that the Ministry of the Environment and the Okinawa Defense
Bureau conduct an urgent search for the lost individuals A and C in the areas allaround Okinawa including the waters off the outer islands.
4) We demand that the Ministry of the Environment designate the Japanese dugong asa rare wild species of Japan without delay.
5) We request that Okinawa Prefecture include in the Committee organized toproperly dispose of the unexploded bomb, the bomb-disposal authorities, specialists
in marine mammals and coral reefs, people in fishery and tourism, and us, thecitizens groups.
(We are planning to contact the Ministry of the Environment, the Okinawa Defense
Bureau and the Okinawa Prefecture directly concerning our demands and request.)
Translator s note: Specimen B, believed to be the mother of C, was found dead on
March 18 in the waters off Nakijin-son, a village near Kouri Island. The cause of her
death will be investigated. We must make more effort to conserve and restore themarine ecosystem so that dugongs may one day come back and live with us inpeace.