Barrier experiment spurs hope for seagrass recovery in Trang
Efforts to restore seagrass beds accelerate to address the dwindling food supply for the rapidly declining dugong population in the region
State agencies and locals in Trang’s Sikao district are intensifying efforts to restore seagrass beds and address food shortages among the dugongs in the area.
On Monday, a team studied the seagrass beds in the Ban Laem Sai community to evaluate the effectiveness of a barrier set up to prevent invasion from other animals. This has proved successful because the seagrass inside the barrier has grown more than a metre high over the past five months.
Though animals consumed seagrass outside the barrier, the roots remained intact, offering potential for expansion.
Paitoon Panchaiyaphum, director of the Marine and Coastal Resources Conservation and Resource Management Department, explained that erecting barriers is one method of combating seagrass shortages. He noted that recovery methods must be tailored to each area's specific landscape.
Villagers believe that other animals, including sea turtles, have been invading the seagrass beds, so the area has been fenced off for five to six months using a barrier made of net and wood, he explained.
He added that the cost-effectiveness of the method would be evaluated to expand recovery initiatives.
Pontep Wirachwong, lecturer at Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, Trang Campus, said Ban Laem Sai has some 2,000 rai of seagrass beds in need of recovery. He stressed the importance of seagrass restoration for ecosystem balance, sustainable fisheries and combatting global warming.
Here, the overconsumption of seagrass by animals has slowed down its growth, so we decided to fence off the area for five months and saw positive results, Pontep said, adding that seagrass recovery could mirror the success of mangrove reforestation efforts.
This urgency comes amid troubling statistics: 45 dugongs in the Andaman Sea have died this year, 14 of them in November alone. While some deaths were caused by entanglement in fishing gear or collisions with boat propellers, starvation due to a lack of seagrass remains the key cause.
