We have spent years diving in coastal waters, but nothing quite prepares you for an encounter with a dugong. There is a quietness to them — unhurried, ancient, completely indifferent to the chaos happening above the surface. That’s what makes their situation so striking. While we go about our lives, one of the ocean’s most ecologically critical mammals is slipping away in silence. Recent science is only now catching up to what these animals actually mean for the planet — and the findings are sobering. The loss of dugongs doesn’t just mean one fewer species in the ocean. It sets off a chain reaction that reaches all the way to our climate. We filmed this during a dive that we won’t forget. What you see here is wild, unscripted, and increasingly rare. If this reaches even a few people who didn’t know dugongs existed — that’s a start. Share it. The ocean doesn’t have a voice. We do.
While searching for updated information on seagrass-dugong relation, we found a scientific paper released in May 2026. It brings into light an interesting fact: when dugongs graze on seagrass and quickly recycle nutrients through their waste, they actually help the seagrass grow healthier and trap significantly more carbon in the sediment than areas where dugongs are missing.
If you want to dive deeper into the research, click on the citation below to read the research paper.