DugongsThe Red Sea's gentle sea cow.

About dugongs

The dugong (Dugong dugon) is a large fully-aquatic marine mammal and the only surviving member of the family Dugongidae. Adults reach 2.4 to 3 metres and weigh 250 to 400 kg, with a small population of confirmed residents living along the Marsa Alam coast. They are strictly herbivorous and depend entirely on shallow seagrass meadows of Halophila, Halodule and Cymodocea, which is why you only find them in calm protected bays rather than offshore reefs. A single dugong can graze around 30 kg of seagrass per day, leaving a clear feeding trail through the meadow. Females reach sexual maturity at 10 to 17 years and give birth to one calf every 3 to 7 years - a slow reproductive rate that makes any boat-strike or net entanglement a serious threat to the local population. They surface to breathe roughly every 3 to 5 minutes when feeding and can hold their breath for up to 12 minutes when resting. Hearing is excellent but eyesight is poor, so the rules below matter: keep your distance, do not touch, and never block the path to the surface.