In Harry Bligh’s article “Alarm over gill nets – Recreational anglers fear ban will be overturned” (2007), many dugongs died because of human’s activity. This is a very serious issue that makes a warning for us because dugong and sea animals are endangered now. Should we protect dugong or not? Many people said animals are our friends, no matter whether they are dangerous or not, whether they are beautiful or not. However, many animals have died because people want money, nice clothes or delicious food. They do not think animals are our friends. As a result, humans have killed lots of animals, and some of them have disappeared from our lives. Dugong also may get this destiny. People kill them because they eat fish which fisherman caught in a protected area. Is it a reason that people can take dugongs’ life? The answer is NO. We cannot kill them just because we need money or something else. Therefore, we need to protect dugongs. We need to protect dugongs as soon as possible. In fact, there are three ways that we can protect dugongs. We can build the dugong protection area, we can make a law to control the hunter and protect dugongs and the UN or Greenpeace should control countries’ marine military.
We may not know what dugongs are. Dugong is a kind of sea cow. According to Animals diversity web, they can grow as long as 5 meters and as heavy as 500Kg. They are very dangerous and they always attack fishermen near China, Japan and Australia. In some Asian countries, dugong is called the real mermaid. In the article “Dugong (Seacow)”, we know that dugong has been found in 43 countries (n, d). Most dugongs live in Asian and near Australia. Some counties already put dugong in their sea animal’s protection list. But there are also lots of problems. For example, US military base in Japan made lots of dugongs died (Kambayashi, 2008). Queensland wants to put gill nets into the dugong protection area (Bligh, 2007). There are also many problems like that. Therefore, we need of think of some ways to solve the problems.
First, we should build enough dugong protection areas and protect the wildlife area. We know dugong is a very dangerous sea animal. Our protecting them is also protecting us. The dugong is found in 43 countries along the western Pacific and Indian Oceans. (n, d,). Those countries need to build the dugong-protected areas. In fact, the dugong is dangerous. Therefore the protection area must be built far from human’s beaches. There are also some problems. One is protection area in LDCs (less developing countries). They do not have enough money to build a protection area. Maybe the LDCs governments support hunters to catch dugongs or other animals because of financial problems. Therefore, the UN needs to give money to help LDCs to build the protection areas. That is necessary to do as soon as possible. The other one is protection area in MDCs (more developing countries). MDCs have lots of militaries. That is also a big problem. And they also need a lot of resources from the ocean. Therefore, the pollution will be worse than in LDCs. So solving the problem of sea pollutions is the first important thing to do before MDCs build the protections area.
Also there are many dugongs that live far from every country. People need to do research that helps scientists to protect those dugongs. Protecting them in human’s way is easy and important and gives them a “house” to live in. Also, just dugong protection area is not enough, because a dugong does not just stay one place until its death. Therefore, scientists’ using high technology to protect them is also necessary, such as some little GPS that can help scientists know where dugongs go and what they should do to protect dugong. That can completely know what happened about that wild the dugongs and easier to protect the dugongs.
Second, we should make a new law to protect the dugong and other sea animals. Each country needs to make a law to protect dugong. One is do not kill or eat dugong or other animals. There are also many hunters who kill dugongs illegally. So the government also needs a law to control them. For example, the government should give them an amount that control them, such as they just can hunt 400 dugongs per year. If they broke the law, they will be caught and sent to jail for several years and pay a very heavy fine. They must study how important that protects animals during these times in jail. The other example, Queensland government give the dugong protection area’s manager pressure that put gill net into the dugong living area. That may make other sea species safe. However, dugong will be dead by this proposal. As a result, government should consider the best way to prevent the problem (Bligh, 2007).
Other is that we must study in a class about how important it is to protect sea animals. Nowadays, people are very busy to earn money, to live better. However, they do not have any knowledge about protecting dugong and sea animals. We cannot protect dugong very well if nobody knows how serious it is. That is a very heavy work to do, but we need to do that. For example, everyone should take a test before they can drive. So everybody knows what that means if the traffic light turns red. Therefore, if we take a dugong protection class well, we can protect them easier.
The last one of these proposals is that if people want to have a factory or buy a house near the sea, they must pay a very heavy tax every year because they may send lots of pollutants into the ocean. That can help government to protect dugong’s life. It is useful because no matter personal or government horse or factory, they are also making lots of pollutions. Therefore, if you want to live near the sea, you must pay a lot. That must be done because of the environment and animals’ lives.
Finally, the UN or Greenpeace (an international organization that works for environmental conservation and the preservation of endangered species) (Dict.cn n, d) should control countries’ marine military. Nowadays, lots of wars happen. Lots of human and animals died during the war. Therefore, the UN should control them to a right way to fix the problem between two or more countries. Some countries want to build base near the animals’ protection area. That is very dangerous, because the pollution from the base will kill animals. Also, the most important thing is, do not use chemical weapon during the war. The UN also wants to control that now. That is a pretty difficult rule because chemical weapons are very powerful and useful. It can change a trend during the war. However, we must stop using chemical weapons. It is really dangerous. On December 7th, Japan attacked U.S Pearl Harbor. Japan used the chemical weapons. Even now, Pearl Harbor is still dirty. No animal can live there. That is terrible. Therefore, stopping the use of the chemical weapons is necessary. The war control is very important also.
Opponents of protecting dugong say that protection is not good because dugong is dangerous. They say protecting dugong can make fisherman and some very unusual fish fall into danger. However, their idea is not right. Dugong, fisherman and unusual fish are a life cycle. It does not matter, who is right or not. Therefore, we could not kill dugong just because we want to protect humans and other animals. There is a very strong example. Many years ago, there were not too many sheep in china, because the wolf killed a lot of sheep. People could not feed sheep very well because of it. Therefore, people killed all of the wolves around this area. And then, sheep’s amounts became larger and larger. However, the sheep got a kind of disease. Nobody knows what was wrong with those sheep. Sheep were dead very quickly. And then, an old man told everybody, we need a wolf. That is an interesting story. It is also told us. We cannot kill dugong because dugong eats fish. Thus, protecting dugong is very important.
Also, natural ecosystem cannot be break. Dugong or sea animals, other small fish and human are not a circle. We should protect the natural ecosystem. If we break them, it is must be a problem. “Dugong is needed because they are part of the ecosystem and contribute to the fertility of the sea. The dugong's dung serves as a major food source for certain aquatic animals, thus increasing the volume of marine food available to man. The dugong's extinction, therefore, can affect the balance of the ecosystem and man's survival himself.” (Dugong in danger of extinction n, d)
In conclusion, dugong and other animals need to be protected as soon as possible. Animals are people’s friends. We need to protect them. We should build a protection area, clean the ocean and make a new law. These are only the few way to protect them. Live with them, love them and protect them. It is our responsibility. If everybody loves them, and then we cannot kill him or her any more. If the technology is ready, we can clean the ocean, and give them back a wonderful life. Saving sea animals’ lives is also saving human’s life.
Reference:
Bligh, Harry (2007, December 30). Alarm over gill nets – Recreational anglers fear ban will be overturned. Retrieved on October 22, 2008 from: www.lexisnexis.com/
Dugong dugon. (n, d) Animal Diversity Web Retrieved on December 4, 2008. from: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Dugong_dugon.html
Dugong. (n, d.)The Humane Society of the United States. Retrieved on October 22, 2008 from: www.hsus.org/
Kambayashi T (2008, February 5th) Ruling to protect dugong could put Northern Okinawa aid at risk. Retrieved on October 29th, 2008 The Christian Science Monitor. From: www.csmonitor.com
Dugong in danger of extinction (n,d.) retrieved on December 2, 2008 from: http://www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana/1654/dugong.htm
Dugong. (n,d) Wikipedia. From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugong
Online Dictionary. http://www.dict.cn
