Ellen
Hines wasn't in Thailand when the December tsunami hit, but people,
places and creatures she cared about were. A good deal of the assistant
professor's research for the past five years has been conducted along
Thailand's coastlines, including its hard hit western beaches.
As a geographer, Hines studies the interaction and distribution of people,
plants, animals and cultural features of Thai coastal communities. Each
year, in collaboration with the Marine Endangered Species Unit at the
Marine Biology Center in Phuket, she conducts an annual aerial survey
from a chartered plane to track the local dugong population.
The dugong
is one of the most endangered creatures on Earth. Large, pale and pectorally
robust with arm-like appendages, the dugong was what
Homer mistook for sirens. A vegetarian, its ecological role is that of
a marine landscaper, devouring sea grass with a mouth the shape of a
wide vacuum cleaner nozzle. One of the most rapidly disappearing populations
dwells in shallow waters along the Thai coast. It is difficult to predict
what effect, if any, the disappearance of the dugong population would
have on the Thai coastal ecosystem. But Hines said the dugong has
always been a prominent figure in the local folklore. At the very least,
the culture would be forever altered.
At last
count the Thai population of dugong numbered 200. When Hines made her
annual trip to the region within weeks of the December tsunami,
she found that conditions could have been much worse for these animals.
"Only
10 percent of the sea grass, the dugong's sole source of nourishment,
was destroyed in the tsunami," Hines said.
She was
both relieved and surprised by the discovery. "Seismic
activity, any kind of turbulence … can darken the water long enough
to interrupt photosynthesis and completely destroy the sea grass," she
said. In that scenario, the entire Thai dugong population could have
starved to death.
The bulk of Hines' data is collected through personal interviews with
the people who live and work on the Thai coastline.
"Most
of the people I interview invest all they have in a fishing boat," Hines
said. "But life is getting very desperate in these
places. ... overfishing is a serious matter."
She added, "Destructive
fishing techniques and the harvesting of sea grass are the dugong's biggest
threats."
But the
slow-moving, 880-pound adults are also prone to being caught and drowning
in fishing nets. Dugong tusks and bones are still used as
aphrodisiacs and medicines in many parts of Asia, and the meat is considered
a delicacy, she added. Though the sale of tusks and internal organs is
outlawed in most parts of the world, the black market for the items is
lucrative.
While it
is still too early in Hines' research to determine if there is a statistical
downward trend in the Thai dugong population, most villagers
told her there aren't as many as there used to be. Oddly enough, Hines
has never gotten very close to the live, wild dugongs. "The only
ones I've really seen close up were the two at the Toba Aquarium in Japan," she
said, the only two dugongs in captivity in the world.
Natural disasters and the continual search for funding aside, what keeps
Hines going is her conviction that the integration of basic principles
of conservation in industry can lead to more successful and healthy populations
of human and animal life.
"My mission has always been to conduct research that can be used
for community-based conservation planning in the developing world," she
said.
Already,
some of her findings have been used to convince the Thai government
to establish its first marine life sanctuary. Hines hopes her research
can also shed light on ways to prevent the collapse of Thailand's ocean
ecology and improve life for all of its coastal communities.
-- Denize
Springer
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