Dugongs look a little like a cross between a seal and a whale. They have a round, whiskered snout built perfectly for rooting around in the seabed, a broad flat tail (called a fluke) for steering, and two small flippers for slow, graceful movement. Adults can reach about three metres long — roughly the length of a small car.
Seagrass meadows are their favourite feeding grounds. Dugongs grub along the bottom, pulling up entire grass plants — roots and all — and leaving clear feeding tracks across the sandy seabed that scientists use to track where the animals have been. A single dugong can eat up to 40 kg of seagrass every day.
Like all mammals, dugongs must come to the surface to breathe. They usually surface every one to six minutes, taking a quick breath through nostrils on the very top of their snout, then slipping silently back below. They can hold their breath much longer if they are resting quietly on the seabed.
Vanuatu's warm, sheltered bays and healthy seagrass meadows make excellent dugong habitat. Local communities have traditionally known and respected dugongs for centuries, and today they are a special sight for anyone lucky enough to be in the right bay at the right time — often spotted from traditional canoes or small boats.