Dugong

Photo: Luis P. B. · CC BY-NC

Dugongs are the Isle of Pines' signature species, grazing the lagoon's dense seagrass meadows in a feeding style so complete they extract the entire plant including roots, leaving distinctive feeding trails in the sediment. As the only fully marine herbivorous mammal, they play an irreplaceable ecological role maintaining seagrass bed structure — their feeding disturbance encourages regrowth and increases the diversity of seagrass-associated invertebrates and juvenile fish.