BINTAN ISLAND, Indonesia — Ever since Munsa was a young man, he would quietly paddle a small boat past the mangroves on Air Glubi Island into the Kawal Sea armed with a harpoon. “Anyone can spearfish, but approaching dugongs is what’s challenging,” Munsa said at his home in the Bintan Archipelago, a clutch of islands around 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Singapore. The dugong (Dugong dugon) is one of four surviving species in the Sirenia taxonomy (the other three are African, Amazonian and West Indian manatees). However, global populations of dugongs have declined, owing to demand for the animal’s meat, oil and ivory. In an average week, Munsa would sneak up on a dozen of the herbivorous mammals, which feed on grasses growing on the seafloor throughout East Africa and the Indo-Pacific region. Munsa used to receive up to 15 million rupiah ($1,000) from traders at a time just for the animal’s “tears,” which hunters gather from the animal’s eyes and are considered by some to be an aphrodisiac. By his own admission, he was a prolific hunter of the vulnerable animal. “I’d lose count — in the past, there could be tens of dugongs in a month,” Munsa said. “I have been hunting dugongs since I was young.” Today, in his mid-70s, Munsa is known to people in his village as the last of the community’s dugong hunters. At his home on Air Glubi Island, Munsa displays a spear for hunting dugongs. Image by Yogi Eka Sahputra for…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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