For as long as any local villager remembers, dugongs have found a home in the waters around Koh Libong, an island in the Andaman Sea. Drawn to the vast fields of seagrass close to shore, they are a common sight for fishermen. But there was something special about Mariam.
She was a young dugong brought to the area by marine officials hoping to rehabilitate her, after she had repeatedly stranded herself ashore on the coast of Krabi. She was lost and alone, with no mother in sight. Her helplessness activated a communal caring.
Mariam would become akin to a child for officials and locals who spent more than 100 days nursing and caring for her in the wild, the first time such a thing had ever happened in Thailand with a dugong. She would swim close to shore, seeking out human contact and following an orange rescue boat like it was a parent.
She sucked milk like she was a baby. I saw her development. She stayed with humans. She’s like a baby that came to live with us, said Chaipruek Wirawong, the head of Koh Libong’s no-hunting area for the Department of National Parks Wildlife and Conservation (DNP).
We raised her and we had a bond with her. We saw her cuteness when she ate, slept, stayed, became accustomed to be with humans, played and slept on our laps, he said.
While dugongs perish every year, 2019 has been abnormally deadly, with the highest casualty count ever recorded in Thailand. The reason, experts generally agree, is the impact of humans on the delicate environment these sea mammals depend upon.
Mediacorp 2019. Mediacorp Pte Ltd.