Dugong, I Choose You!

Yesterday was our fabulous hunt for the legendary dugong. Many of you may be wondering what is a dugong? Before this trip, whenever I heard the word dugong I thought of the ice monster from Pokemon. Turns out, it's not just a Pokemon. No duh, I guess.

It's actually sea cow with a dolphin tail. They are very difficult to find because they are on the endangered creature list. Morton Island (the island just north of Straddie) is one of the last Dugong hot spots. So we set out on a dugong hunt!

The Pokemon

Photo of a REAL dugong from Google

So I guess when some people (and by some people I mean marine biologists) go out to hunt for dugongs they actually have a guy stand on the back of the boat and tackle a dugong. It sounds pretty ridiculous to me. We didn't quite do that. Ned from the research center drove us to the harbor in his van where we got on the little boat. It felt and looked very legit to say the least. It looked like a boat that'd you head out on an expedition in. We sat on the inflated sides of the boat and hung on as we sped off across the vast ocean in search of the legendary Dugong. 

Lauren & Kristen
The sign we saw when we arrived at the boat launch.
The one rule, "Don't Fall Off the Boat!"

Lauren, Kristen, Jordan and Kelly on the Boat

Me on the Boat. Hunting for the Dugong.

30 minutes later we came across the dugong resting grounds and let the boat ease to a stop. And then just waited.... All of a sudden we could see a little snout pop up in the distance. We gasped. It was......a Dugong!  ALAS! Then more seemed to pop up one by one. There were 4-5 in all. We saw their tails too and the backs of their bodies. It was simply fascinating.

Then we drove the boat into shallow water. There we began to tail some giant sea turtles with the boat. Glen sent some of the students jumping off of the boat to tackle the sea turtle. It was hilarious as people flopped into the water missing the turtle. The turtle was SO fast. It would just speed away like it was nothing. No one was successful though. Just miss after miss. It was like a rodeo. No one could stay on those wild turtles. 

I got to drive the boat back to harbor which was wicked cool. I felt like I was driving a boat from some kind of spy movie. That about summed up the awesomeness which was yesterday.

Today we presented our projects. Then during tea time we say dolphins jumping in the ocean, which the sun setting in the background. It was AMAZING. Then we went for a walk and saw get this....3 koalas in one tree! I mean how cool? It was probably the most adorable thing that I've ever seen. I still can't get over it. I took tons of photos. Hey Alicia, I found Kenny!

Kenny the Koala

I don't know if I ever mentioned this before but I feel like I'm in the movie The Birds on this island.  I kept looking around expecting to see Tippi Hedren. The birds here are nuts! They keep screeching all day long and fly around in swarms. Then they swoop around in circles. It's like we are under attack by a swarm of mad birds.

We ended the day by watching flying foxes (a kind of bat) fly off into the night. I took a video of it. I'll show you all when I get back. We watched it from the graveyard which was quiet fitting. It added this extra spooky flair to it. Then we walked back through the graveyard at the dusk to the research center with the bats flying over the head. I felt like we were in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I was so ready to stake some vamps. haha. I know I'm a dork. What can I say? I even brought my Sunnydale Sweatshirt.

That about concludes the best day ever!

Till next time.