A three-metre marine mammal that grazes seagrass, and why nobody can promise you one.
A dugong is a marine mammal about three metres long, related to the manatee and distantly to the elephant. It grazes seagrass meadows, surfaces every few minutes to breathe, and moves with the unhurried air of something with no predators to worry about.
In Egypt they are found in the seagrass bays south of Hurghada — Abu Dabbab, Marsa Mubarak and a handful of others. The population is small, individuals range widely, and any given bay may or may not have one on any given day.
They are classed as vulnerable globally. The pressures are boat strikes, net entanglement and — increasingly here — being crowded by snorkellers. A dugong repeatedly surrounded while feeding will simply leave the bay, and there are only so many bays.
If you are lucky enough to meet one: stay at the surface, keep several metres back, never get between it and open water, and let it surface without a ring of people around it.
If you are lucky enough to meet one: stay at the surface, keep several metres back, never get between it and open water, and let it surface without a ring of people around it. Watching one graze for five minutes from a respectful distance is a better experience than the photograph anyway.
