Dugong's Healthy - but...

[Mike Delisser]

Yeh I recon they did have exemptions then Chris, I thought you guys beleived this was a new incident, sorry.
I think the ferry opperators will always have an exemption, maybe the Pro Bridge group will be "doing it for the dugong" soon!

[Dignity]

Were marine scientists involved in this story???? There is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest that we redneck fishermen do not lift fish out of the water when releasing them to the briny otherwise their survival rate plummets. The issue with rescuing beached whales is that after a period of time they will not survive as their internal organs get crushed and they die slowly, I would have put dugong in tha same category.

I saw the video on one of the TV stations and cringed, the method used was the same that they use for turtles which i would think can at least stand being out of water for some time, the piddling amount of water being poured over the dugongs would not be enough to wet me and I only weigh in at 70 kg. As mentioned how many captured dugong will survive especially with those bright orange numbers painted on them which will act like targets for the absolute minority of boating idiots.

[Pridey]

Still no more replies posted..

We should buy a newspaper !

Mwhaha

[Bowser]

She forgot to mention the gentleman from a few years ago "traditionally hunting" dugong in Port Douglas. He was right inside the port in sight of all the tourists on the water side there using the "traditional" method, an outboard powered aluminium boat and a rifle. From press reports at the time he got a reasonable bag, enough to make the claimed figures of 1 per month seem tame.

[cuzzamundi]

"
Small boats track dugongs feeding on shallow seagrass meadows, allowing scientists wearing footy helmets to leap out and grab them by the tail while making sure their head is above water.
The pug-nosed creatures are wrestled into a sling and then taken to a nearby mother ship where samples are gathered."

Let's really care for them..le't just stress the hell out of them...stupid bloody scientists..leave the animals alone and observe them and not touch..as bad as Steve Irwin..all the deaths will now be from stress caused by this ridiculous action.

Trevor Long is a liar..I hope you read this Trevor.

Scientists caring about animals..bullshit..stress creators.

You're wrong about that one, Pinhead. We all go on about science...using facts to back up claims. Where's your science that this in fact stresses them to death? Where's your science that entitles you to call Irwin a 'Stressor'? You sound like a bunch of scientists I used to argue with many moons ago when I started tagging large sharks on the beach. 'You bring them out of water for ANY period of time, they will die a slow death from stress, and crushed organs, and blah blah blah.' Their tune soon changed, however, when years later my big tigers, bulls, hammers, and other sharks would rock up dead on the drumlines. It broke my heart that they were dying via this method, but a part of me was happy to see the back of this nonsensical 'stress death' excuse. I'd bet my left nut that those dugong would be fine upon being released. I agree that there are some ridiculous claims being made in all this (when isn't there) against us fishos, but best not to fight a dud claim with another, I reckon.

Cuzza