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Transcript
00:00So what, we're just going to jump in on these things?
00:05Yep, that's the way we do it.
00:07But do we have enough people?
00:09We've got a good crew, they know what they're doing.
00:12Everything's right.
00:14Should I have renewed my life insurance?
00:17No, all you have to do is follow up.
00:22You've got your fins, your goggles.
00:25We're on the hunt for a very big and mysterious creature,
00:32one I've never seen up close and personal before.
00:36Okay, when they surface,
00:38sometimes you'll see a brown back coming out of the water,
00:41sometimes you'll see their head,
00:43sometimes you'll only see their nothpils come out,
00:45so sometimes they can be quite secretive.
00:47Alright, well, what I'm imagining is a really fat Loch Ness monster.
00:53Oh, yeah, I suppose you could pray that.
00:56But it's not Nessie we're hot on the tail of.
00:59It's a dugong.
01:01We have dugongs 10 metres in front of us.
01:04Is there one?
01:06I've joined an extraordinary week-long operation
01:09to catch, study and release this unique marine mammal.
01:13Sea World 1, Sea World 1, this is Sea World 2.
01:16Let's get it.
01:18We have a go.
01:19Catch requires a boatload of humans in rugby helmets.
01:22Okay, mate. Thank you.
01:24Three decades of experience.
01:28And a half-tonne dugong who doesn't want to go to the vet.
01:32Oh, look, it's huge.
01:35It's insane.
01:36I can see this shadow moving under the water's surface.
01:39Yeah.
01:40Hasn't even taken a breath yet.
01:42The team wait for him to take at least three breaths
01:45before they enter the water
01:47to make sure he's burnt off enough energy
01:49to be safely caught.
01:53Oh, wow.
01:55Look at that.
01:56Oh, my gosh.
01:58That is wild.
02:03Oh.
02:04With a third breath, it's go time.
02:07Oh, my gosh.
02:11You're on it! You're on it!
02:12As soon as I get my goggles on.
02:19As the dugong tries to dive
02:21and the jumpers try to stop him,
02:23we start gathering data.
02:25Five minutes ago, I'd never even seen a dugong.
02:34Now I'm the one holding the tape measure.
02:41275.
02:44Do one more.
02:48Turns out I didn't need life insurance.
02:52It's huge.
02:53It's powerful but not manic.
02:57And it actually feels smooth with little outfits.
03:04And it's beautiful.
03:06And its breath smells like seaweed.
03:09The team's work is far from over.
03:12Oh, my God.
03:14If you thought the hard part was catching a half-ton dugong,
03:16wait until you see them hoist him onto a boat.
03:25As a nature journalist,
03:27I spend a lot of my time observing wildlife
03:30from behind my binoculars.
03:33But not this time.
03:36That's the heat.
03:37It's huge.
03:38In this series, I'm getting up close and personal.
03:42Brilliant. That's fantastic.
03:44No matter how deadly the animal.
03:47I got it.
03:49And it's not just for fun.
03:51Seeing animals like this is absolutely incredible.
03:54I'll be joining scientists on location as they try to gain a deeper understanding of animals.
04:02Three, two, one.
04:04We all think we know.
04:06So adorable.
04:08And this time, it's dugongs.
04:12They look like floating potatoes.
04:16And fishermen once mistook them for mermaids.
04:21But today, groundbreaking research is shedding new light on their secretive lives.
04:28And their precarious future.
04:32I'm Dr. Anne Jones, and things are about to get wild.
04:37Every year, a team of researchers and volunteers from the University of Queensland and the SeaWorld Foundation
04:53Hello.
04:54Join forces to conduct a very special survey.
04:58All right.
04:59Glad I wore pants so you'd burn your biscuits on these seats.
05:02And it all starts in the sky.
05:08Go find some dugongs?
05:09Let's do it, yeah.
05:11Marine researcher Dr. Merrick Eakins has spent the last 15 years volunteering as part of the world's largest dugong health study.
05:24Oh, beautiful day for it.
05:26But to study a dugong, first, you have to find it.
05:38We're flying off the coast of Queensland, around 30 kilometres east of Brisbane.
05:43Make a look out there, that is Quandamooka country.
05:47This is what you might know as Moreton Bay.
05:51Down there is a marine park that's about 3,400 kilometres square.
05:59But right underneath me are about 1,000 dugongs.
06:03Apparently, 1,000 of them live here, right next to the city.
06:08Dugongs are the most common marine mammal in Northern Australia.
06:14And spend up to 20 hours a day grazing in shallow waters.
06:18So, you'd think that'd be easy to spot.
06:22What sort of thing am I looking for?
06:25Well, we're looking for the dugong shape, sort of that bullet shape with the big tail.
06:28And sometimes what you can also do is you'll find a feeding trail where they've stirred up the mud and the seagrass.
06:35And hopefully we'll find a big herd of them, that's better.
06:38But we might see some solitaries first.
06:41I feel like we're searching for a contact lens in a swim pool.
06:46Well, we know where the seagrass beds are.
06:49Previously, so we'll just go straight for those ones.
06:52And then we'll search around, usually near the edge of the sandbank.
06:58Oh, right.
07:03Oh, look at that.
07:04Oh, look at that.
07:05We've got a herd here.
07:06Oh, that's fantastic.
07:07See that, Anne?
07:08Yeah.
07:091, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 individuals down there.
07:13That is wild.
07:15Mark this one.
07:16So we can come back.
07:17Oh, look, there's a car.
07:18Oh my goodness.
07:21They're absolutely shaped like those fish shaped biscuits.
07:26That's exactly what they look like from above.
07:29See, there's another.
07:31Oh my goodness.
07:32There's like 5, 10, 10, 20, 25 maybe.
07:37About 40 in that.
07:38And there's another herd of about 20 next to it.
07:41Oh, you can see their pathways.
07:43They look like little snail trails.
07:45Yeah, that's it.
07:46So what they do is they sort of dive down and go along the bottom.
07:49Do a sort of lawn mower type front.
07:52See how rotund that one was.
07:54It just came up for a breath.
07:55Yeah, the big round one's probably a female.
07:57Probably a pregnant female then.
07:59It is so amazing.
08:01Why are we spotting them from the air?
08:03What's going to happen from here?
08:04Oh, from here, we mark the location.
08:07And so then we can get in the boat and go to the GPS point
08:09and then try and find the herd.
08:11So what, they'll stay there?
08:12They tend to stay roughly in the same spot for a couple of weeks.
08:16The population here may seem healthy, but dugongs are in global decline.
08:24To find out more about what's been done to help them, I'm meeting lead investigator on the project, Dr. Janet Lanyon.
08:30So what number season is this for you then?
08:33My number.
08:3416.
08:35It's been going for a while now.
08:37Janet has been studying dugongs for over 40 years.
08:40And for almost half that time, she's been pioneering a way of checking the health of their population here.
08:46Yeah, it's a pretty full-on program.
08:49It's an intensive week for the team, who are hoping to catch at least 20 dugongs and take over 200 samples and measurements from each one.
09:01Hi everyone.
09:02This is Anne.
09:03Oh, this is nerve-wracking.
09:05There's so many people.
09:08Hello.
09:09Hi, I'm Anne.
09:11As they prepare the kit for the boats, three of the team, Lockie, Helen and Chloe, show me the methods behind this madness.
09:19Wow.
09:20Okay, this is looking medical.
09:22Yes, yep.
09:23So this is our two blood boxes.
09:25So taking blood on deck of the dugong is one of the main sampling types that we do.
09:29So what we've got in these bags are just all the blood tubes.
09:32There's quite a lot of tubes that we use.
09:35So that's for one animal?
09:36For one animal per bag.
09:37That's a lot of blood.
09:38So then it's just sort of a grab and go for each animal when Janet's doing the sticking.
09:43And what sort of thing are you trying to find out with the blood?
09:45Oh, all sorts of things.
09:47So basic haematology, looking at red blood cell counts and white blood cells and that sort
09:52of thing.
09:53We can look at hormones.
09:54We also look at stress hormones too, so getting an insight into their stress physiology.
09:59Some of the samples also tell us about diseases and heavy metals and various contaminants.
10:05Is it possible to take the bloods when you're in the water?
10:09Oh, it's really difficult.
10:11We tried that in the early years and we were unsuccessful in getting decent volumes of blood
10:17that were uncontaminated by seawater because you have to hold the pectoral thing out of
10:21the water.
10:22So the bloods are critical and that's one of the main reasons that we take the animals
10:26out of water.
10:27See you out there.
10:28See you there.
10:29The team are always looking for ways to reduce the more invasive methods of sampling.
10:34Hello.
10:35Although some of the alternatives require a bit of Aussie ingenuity.
10:38Are you a Frisbee fan?
10:40The Frisbees, yes.
10:42The Frisbees are really important in this program because they're a urine and a faecal collector
10:48and so they get placed under the dugong while it's on board the boat.
10:52What sort of thing are you going to find out from the scat or the urine?
10:57Hormones.
10:58You can find out if a dugong is pregnant and we've got this Frisbee covered in alfoil to
11:03make sure that there's no plastic contamination.
11:06And that's mainly because we can look for microplastics in the faeces.
11:10It's incredible, isn't it?
11:11Like dugongs, they're so incredibly secretive and so many of their secrets are in their poos.
11:16That's right.
11:17That's right.
11:18Before we head out on the boat, long-time volunteer Lockie has another job in mind for me.
11:24We've got a few different types of swabs here.
11:27They've got a really thick kind of tear layer, a mucusy tear layer.
11:31So we're going to try and get a little sample of that.
11:33We're going to look at getting some samples in the mouth and the tongue as well.
11:36Okay.
11:37But Janet, why are you doing this when you've got the bloods?
11:40What is this going to tell you that's different?
11:42We're always interested in finding alternatives to blood sampling.
11:45So if we can sample saliva or the tears of the animals and we can still pick up hormones
11:51or other markers of health, that's preferable.
11:54Okay.
11:55All right.
11:56Well, can I carry something to take out to the boat?
11:58That'd be fantastic, yeah.
11:59If you want to carry this one out, maybe.
12:01I'll see you soon, Janet.
12:02Okay.
12:03All right.
12:04I feel like I got the easy job.
12:05With the volunteers in town for just a week and a shopping list of 20 dugongs, we're back
12:17out on the boat with a floating dugong clinic on our heels.
12:22And it's not long before we find our next customer.
12:33The jump team maneuver the dugong onto a stretcher slung between two boats, which they will use
12:41to transport the dugong towards the larger boat for his checkup.
12:56The dugong is settled, having left a trail of exhausted humans in its wake.
13:02This is wild.
13:03How'd you go?
13:04Good.
13:05How's it going?
13:06Good.
13:07How's it going?
13:08Yeah.
13:09That's amazing.
13:10You did well.
13:11It's so strong.
13:12Yeah, that's a big male, actually.
13:17Anybody on board?
13:19Nearly.
13:20Okay.
13:21So, that's what we do, over and over.
13:24Merrick travels in the stretcher to keep a close eye on our new friend.
13:37On board the floating clinic, SeaWorld One, the team are standing by, as they prepare to
14:00lift this giant sea creature onto their back deck.
14:04There it is.
14:19An adult dugong weighs around 500 kilograms and measures about three metres in length.
14:26So, it takes a big winch and a big team to hoik this fella onto the boat.
14:33It's huge.
14:34It is so big.
14:37And it looks incredibly vulnerable when its soft nostrils come up and take a breath.
14:46It just, yeah, it's amazing.
14:50You know when you get a delicious toddler and they've got, like, little rolls?
14:55That's how tubby it is.
14:56That's how tubby it is.
14:57It's just gorgeous.
15:00This is the first time the dugong has been out of the water, ever.
15:05So, to encourage him to keep breathing, Janet pours water over his nostrils, which mimics
15:10the sensation of surfacing for breath.
15:12Have we had a breath?
15:13Yeah.
15:14Once Janet is happy, the team aim to complete the health assessment in 30 minutes.
15:23It's a well-oiled machine.
15:29Keeping the dugong safe is paramount, as he is measured and photographed from nostril to
15:39tail fluke.
15:47Janet takes the blood samples from vessels deep under the dugong's pectoral fin.
16:00You ready for us to come in for swabs?
16:02Yep.
16:03And I gear up to help Lockie take the swabs.
16:06Just got a little checklist here.
16:09Everything we need to do the swabs on the animal.
16:10Yeah.
16:11So up the front end.
16:12And so...
16:13So it's all pre-labelled.
16:14We're ready.
16:15Exactly right.
16:16Yep.
16:17Tongue one, two, three, and four.
16:18Yep.
16:19Perfect.
16:20Yep.
16:21Tier right, tier left.
16:23Yep.
16:24Perfect.
16:25Under strict supervision, I start collecting dugong tiers.
16:29Great.
16:30That's not going to be able to see that little tier layer.
16:32So if you just pull it off right, yep, that's perfect.
16:35Yeah, it comes out like a bit of snot out of your nose.
16:38Exactly right.
16:39Yeah, that's great.
16:40So what you can do is cap that one.
16:42Cap that one.
16:43And that's how we get the tiers.
16:44Thank you for letting me look at your eyes, darling.
16:46We've got two ribs.
16:47Yeah.
16:48Lockie also collects samples from the nostrils and saliva from inside the mouth.
16:53So it can be a little tricky to go up and access in the mouth and on the tongue.
16:57These samples will help piece together a picture of this dugong's health, along with what and where
17:04he's been grazing.
17:05That's how we learn about this population here in Northern Bay.
17:08It also helps us get a baseline for these guys as well.
17:11So what a healthy dugong looks like compared to what maybe a compromised dugong looks like.
17:15So it's all really good data to compare to all the other herd members as well.
17:20And with advancing technology, you know, one day down the track, we might be able to use
17:23these same samples a different way.
17:25It's like a body.
17:27It excretes information.
17:28It's all biological information.
17:30Right?
17:31Haven't they been out of water?
17:33How long has it been?
17:34How long?
17:3535%.
17:36So we've just about found, aren't we?
17:39Yep.
17:44With the sampling complete, all hands are on deck to return this dugong safely back to
17:49his herd.
18:17The samples that Janet's team collects are revealing that the dugongs rarely stray from
18:23home waters and have a very specific diet.
18:31So can the answer to their conservation be found on their dinner plate?
18:46The next morning, heavy rain and high winds makes it unsafe to catch dugongs.
18:53So, with the boats stuck in the harbour, I take advantage of the low tide to roam around
18:59their canteen.
19:01Is that a cone snail?
19:10Are you a cone snail?
19:11No you're not…
19:12You're a hermit crab.
19:16Oh, what a cutie.
19:23I've been told that out here on the mudflats
19:27are a whole heap of seagrasses,
19:29and that's what the dugongs eat.
19:35Ooh!
19:43It's really short.
19:46Really short, like someone's been over it with a mower.
19:51There's a fair amount of what I think is seagrass here,
19:56but it's all a bit...
19:59underwhelming.
20:01For some reason I thought
20:03that it would have to be really big plants
20:05because it's a really big animal.
20:07These plants are tiny.
20:10Like, tiny, tiny.
20:12Less than a centimetre tall, some of them.
20:16Now, how much of this seagrass
20:21would a dugong have to eat?
20:23Like, they weigh up to 500 kilograms, right?
20:25They'd have to eat so much of this grass.
20:32It doesn't seem very effective.
20:35All this talk of eating
20:37has made me hungry.
20:39This talk of eating
20:40has made me hungry.
20:42I'm off to find cake.
20:45And...
20:46I'm off to find cake.
20:48And answers.
20:52I'm sort of glad we're not out on the boat today.
20:54That would be a bit miserable.
20:55Oh, I know.
21:01Great, thank you very much.
21:03I went out for a walk on the mudflats
21:05and in my head I had thought
21:07that seagrass meadows would be, like, waving,
21:10almost like tiny, you know, forests.
21:13It doesn't seem logical to me
21:15that an animal that big
21:16could rely on plants this big.
21:18I know.
21:19Yeah.
21:20So, although it looks like
21:21there's not much seagrass there,
21:22most of the seagrass plant
21:23is underneath the sediment.
21:25So there are underground stems
21:27or rhizomes and also roots.
21:29And that stuff is really good food for dugongs.
21:32So it's full of sugars and starch
21:34and all sorts of goodies.
21:37So the leaves are really important for the dugongs
21:39because they're high in protein,
21:40but you've got all the goodness in the rest of the plant too.
21:43So do they sort of, like, hoover that up like a linguine?
21:46Like, how do they actually get that into their mouth?
21:48Okay, so they feed in different ways
21:49depending on what they're feeding on.
21:50So for seagrasses that have upright shoots,
21:54they'll actually grasp those and pull them.
21:56And pull it out?
21:57Yep.
21:58And then the other seagrasses, they excavate.
22:00So for the really small stuff,
22:02they'll actually dig it up.
22:04These hoover-bulldozer hybrids
22:06have poor eyesight
22:07and among the smallest teeth
22:09of any mammal relative to their size.
22:12But they have such sensitive muzzle bristles
22:15that they can detect even the tiniest scrap of seagrass.
22:20So how much of that grass do they take in per day?
22:23Oh, huge amount.
22:25If they feed on that little round halophila species
22:27that they really like,
22:28they may need about 65 kilos fresh weight per day
22:33in order to survive.
22:34And then if they breed, they need even more.
22:37So when a dugong comes along
22:40and eats 65 kilograms of grass in one day,
22:43how does the grass respond?
22:45Yeah, well, remember that they're not taking
22:48100% of the seagrass in the feeding trails.
22:51So there are remnants left.
22:52And those rhizomes are able to send up new shoots.
22:55And so the way the seagrass responds is fairly rapid.
22:59But also, because they grow fast,
23:01they don't lay down that high level of fibre.
23:04And so it ends up being perfect food for dugong.
23:07So they just keep regenerating it.
23:08So could you call them then an ecosystem engineer?
23:11Yeah, absolutely.
23:12This ecosystem is not just critical for dugongs.
23:16The seagrass is a valuable carbon store.
23:19And the beds act like an anchor,
23:22stabilising sediment along the coast
23:24and dampening wave action.
23:26But the seagrass is fragile.
23:29Here in Northern Australia,
23:31some of the biggest threats to seagrasses at the moment
23:33are these extreme climate events that we're having.
23:36We know that with every flood effect or cyclone,
23:39there's direct damage to seagrass beds.
23:41Do you see that reflected in the dugongs?
23:43We do.
23:44And in fact, every time there's been a major rainfall event
23:48that's led to coastal flooding, they're having fewer carbs.
23:51And after some of the really major cyclones and floods,
23:54there have been zero carbs in the population.
23:57So their growth rates, their reproductive rates,
23:59how healthy they are, everything,
24:01their whole life history is determined by their food.
24:04Janet's work has revealed a really important secret,
24:09that yes, there are dugongs out there in the bay that are healthy,
24:13but that it might not always be like that.
24:16Because at this stage,
24:18we don't actually know how many extreme weather events
24:21the seagrass meadows are going to be able to absorb.
24:24And along with that,
24:25it means that the dugong's future remains uncertain.
24:34It's my final day in Moreton Bay,
24:36and I'm heading out on one last trip with the team.
24:42Hey, can you guys get a big female this time, please?
24:47Dugongs can live for up to 70 years and are slow breeders.
24:51So with the population in decline,
24:53scientists need to know more about how they reproduce.
24:59He's got one.
25:00Oh, wow.
25:01That can only happen if they find a female.
25:19Janet has assessed over 250 dugongs out of the water.
25:24You happy to go on three?
25:25Go three, Drew.
25:27And while launching yourself at a dugong seems completely bonkers,
25:32it's been shown to have minimal impact on their stress physiology.
25:40Got the pace?
25:41Yep.
25:43Not the case for the jump team,
25:46who are put through the wringer by this powerful female.
25:49The team measure her substantial girth
25:55before sliding her onto the taxi stretcher.
26:05My main priority remains not drowning.
26:09I think this is what kids are talking about when they say they want to be a marine scientist.
26:24I'm pretty sure that this is exactly what they're talking about.
26:27This is the good part of it.
26:29But most of the time you just hold them there.
26:36OK, this is a big female.
26:38Preparations are made as the team get this female over onto the boat.
26:46And everyone gets to work as the 30 minute countdown begins.
26:49Right, right.
26:5068.
26:5168.
26:52Taking measurements.
26:53Yep, yep, staying on 68.
26:55Taking bloods.
26:58And placing an identification tag on her tail fluke.
27:02Can we have some hands too?
27:06We're just going to roll slightly towards Mary.
27:08Ready when you are.
27:10One of the most useful tools on the boat is an ultrasound machine.
27:13Vet, Claire Madden, uses it to take measurements such as blubber thickness.
27:21But it's also used to check whether a female dugong has a calf on board.
27:26And Claire confirms that this one is pregnant.
27:30So with the ultrasound we were able to see the fetus.
27:33Oh my goodness.
27:34Yeah.
27:35That is amazing.
27:36So when we measured her in water she had all the dimensions of a pregnant animal.
27:40So that gives us a clue and then we come up through the ultrasound.
27:43And then the other thing we do is from the poo sample we then measure progesterone and that will confirm the pregnancy test.
27:49The pregnancy test.
27:50Yeah.
27:51But we've seen the fetus so we know.
27:54That is so exciting.
27:56A baby dugong.
28:00Dugongs breed once every three to five years and carry a single calf which they may nurse until they have another.
28:11It's a huge energetic investment and for a home body that relies on a vanishingly specific diet, protecting the seagrass may be the key to protecting the dugong.
28:24This population of dugongs is incredibly special, not least of all because it is the most studied population in all of the world.
28:36More than that, the studies that are going on here right now, the techniques that they're developing are going to be key to the conservation of the dugong worldwide.
28:46They're going to be able to apply this Australian research to wherever the dugongs live.
28:51And hopefully that means that we're going to have many, many more decades to find out the secret lives of dugongs.
28:59Next time, it's the Sunderpangolin.
29:04Look at that.
29:06Oh, no, no, no.
29:07Your trap just got tricked.
29:08Thank you so much.
29:09Thank you so much.