No dugong found near Okinawa marine base after 3 years of search, officials say

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Japanese government is ending its search for the dugong, an endangered cousin of the manatee, in the waters off Okinawa, where a controversial Marine Corps trail is under construction.

A committee of the Okinawa Defense Office decided May 21 that the dugong's long absence from Oura Bay, where the government is building the airstrip from reclaimed land, meant it was unlikely he's coming back, according to meeting documents posted on the office's website. .

Fewer than 10 dugongs were left in the waters around Okinawa, according to a December 2019 report from the Japan Times.

Calls attributed to dugongs by experts were recorded in 2020, and Okinawa Prefecture asked the bureau to expand its research in 2022 following the detection of dugong DNA in feces, according to the documents.

Beginning in April 2020, the office added an expanded helicopter search, an additional surveillance vessel, and five additional underwater audio recording devices in Oura Bay. She also examined signs of algae feeding in the bay and installed three underwater cameras in the same area, according to the documents.

After years of unsuccessful research, the bureau concluded that dugongs “do not have a permanent residence in this area” and that additional measures are not needed to mitigate or reduce “the effects of construction vessels and noise associated submarine on dugong habitat. “, according to the document. according to the document.

The dugong has become not only an environmental concern, but also part of the rationale for opposition to the Marine Corps airstrip under construction at Camp Schwab. The new airfield is intended to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, further south in Okinawa.

Work on the runway resumed in January after the prefectural government lost a series of legal challenges over project design changes and building permits.

Under Governor Denny Tamaki, a staunch opponent of the US military presence on the island, the prefecture also argued for stopping the project on environmental grounds, citing soft seabed and potential damage to coral reefs. endangered.

The prefecture's legal fight has kept Japanese courts busy, but even the American justice system has weighed in.

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in May 2020 rejected American environmentalists' challenge to the Department of Defense's plans for the airstrip. The lawsuit, filed in 2003 by the Center for Biological Diversity, American and Japanese environmental groups and individuals, argued that the Pentagon planned the airfield project without considering potential negative effects on the dugong.