In 2024, 41 dead dugongs (or payuun in Thai) washed up on Thai shores. Experts predict that there are less than 120 left in the country. Why? Thailand's coastal seagrass patches - the dugongs’ main food source - are vanishing fast, and Thailand is the first country in the world where a definitive link between climate change, seagrass, and dugong death is being made. Limited seagrass is also impacting dugongs’ migratory patterns. Before late 2024, dugongs were almost never seen in unprotected areas such as Phuket.
For months, Theerasak “Pop” Saksritawee, an amateur conservationist, has been monitoring one dugong in particular who has chosen to settle temporarily in Tanken Bay. Pop has fondly named him “Miracle”. Through a short documentary film and accompanying feature article, filmmakers Mailee Osten-Tan and Nicolas Axelrod follow Pop as he supports a government working group of scientists to understand what is happening to Thai seagrass and whether it is still possible to save Thailand’s last dugongs.
