The Trobrianders of Papua New Guinea have long had a legend about the origin of the dugongs which begins with a mother who was very offended when her brother used profanity towards her daughter. Holding hands, mother and daughter walked into the sea until their grass skirts fluttered and spread out over the sea as they transformed into dugongs and calves. As recently as 40 years ago, dugong hunters would throw out grass skirts so that the dugongs, thinking they were the ones left on the water in legend, would not be afraid and would be easier to capture. When a dugong was captured, hunters covered its nostrils with the grass skirt until it suffocated. Dugongs have always been an important source of food and oil for tribal people along the coasts of the Western Pacific to East Africa and dugong hunting, dating back thousands of years, includes traditions rigid and prescribed social rituals. Torres Strait Islanders cut a dugong precisely, recognizing more than four dozen different cuts that are distributed to members of their communities based on their stature and social status. Where dugongs are regularly hunted, they tend to feed near the shore only late at night, which could indicate that they have some common sense despite their very small brain size, which is around 300 g (as opposed to dolphins at around 1,700 g and humans at around 1,450 g). (Now on my to-do list for this course are a few research papers on the relationship between intelligence and brain mass ratio.) -The dugong (Dugong Dugon) is a large marine mammal and is the only member of the family Duongidae. It is one of the four living species of the order Sirenia. First classified as Trichechus dugon by German zoologist Philipp Muller in 1776, these magnificent m...... middle of paper ...... marine park. Dr. Marsh has contributed significantly to interdisciplinary solutions to dugong conservation problems. Web: http://www.helenemarsh.com/-Further reading: -Decolonizing conservation? Traditional use of marine resources, agreements and dugong hunting in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area Paul Havemann, Dominique Thiriet, Helene Marsh, Craig Jones (2005) http://www.helenemarsh.com/publications/JournalPapers /2005/Havemann% 20et%20al%202005%20Env.%20and%20...Ecology and Conservation of the Sirenia: Dugongs and Manatees-Ecology and Conservation of the Sirenia: Dugongs and Manatees. Helene Marsh, Thomas J. O'Shea, John E. Reynolds III. University of Cambridge. Press (2011) - Prioritizing areas for dugong conservation in a marine protected area using a spatially explicit population model, Grech, A and Marsh, H 2007 http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/2678/