DECEMBER 15, 2009 Will the U.S. military do right by the dugong?

Diversity (CBD), said in a prepared By John Platt statement. Would a plan to build a 2.5-mile-long The U.S. military has been trying airfi eld in Okinawa, Japan, doom a to expand Camp Schwab for years, rare manateelike species to extinction? while also planning to close another That’s the assertion of more than 400 base on the island. Previous plans environmental organizations, which to build in areas that would threaten recently sent a letter to President the dugong were blocked by a Image: Dugong, via Wikipedia Obama urging him to cancel the federal judge in 2008. plans to expand Camp Schwab, a could, eventually, result in moving U.S. Marine Corps base on Okinawa Many Okinawans aren’t happy 8,000 Marines from Okinawa to island. about the base-expansion plans. Guam. But no one—neither the Last month, more than 20,000 military, Japan’s government nor At issue is the Okinawa population of people showed up to protest U.S. the people or Okinawa—seems dugong (Dugong dugon), the closest military presence on the island. happy with any of the options on living relative to the extinct Steller’s sea the table. cow (Hydrodamalis gigas). Dugongs Dugongs have special cultural are listed as vulnerable to extinction significance in Okinawa. “For Meanwhile, on the other side of by the IUCN Red List of Endangered Okinawans, the dugong compares the world, the U.S. Navy has sent Species, but the geographically only to the American bald eagle its own letter, this time expressing isolated Okinawa population (which in terms of cultural and historical concerns about plans by the U.S. numbers just 50 animals) is considered signifi cance,” Takuma Higashionna, Fish & Wildlife Service to protect critically endangered. a council member from Nago City the dugong’s close relative, the where the base is located, said in West Indian manatee (Trichechus “The Camp Schwab base expansion the CBD’s release. manatus). Fish & Wildlife has project would destroy some of the proposed expanding protected best remaining habitat for the highly The military is currently habitat for the manatee in Florida endangered Okinawa dugong, one of the reconsidering all of its options and Georgia, but the Navy says rarest marine mammal populations in regarding Camp Schwab as part that could, potentially, impact their the world,” Peter Galvin, conservation of a complex series of political ability to conduct training exercises director at the Center for Biological negotiations with Japan which in the area.