Protected sea cow drowned and killed by octopus trap

They were hunted and killed almost to extinction, and now one of Thailand’s few gentle giants of the deep has died in a watery trap.

Trang fishermen discovered the corpse of a dugong, a type of large sea cow similar to a manatee, 300 meters from the shore of the Trang River on Sunday. The death of the mammal is presumed to have been caused by an octopus trap.

The fishermen were sad to discover the body of the 10-year-old female sea cow, which stretches almost two meters long and weighs over 100 kilograms. Officers with the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources assumed the sea cow got caught in an octopus trap under the sea and drowned after being unable to surface as the animal had a nylon rope tied to its tail, Morning News reported.

The dugong is one of 15 protected wild animal species under the Wild Animal Reservation and Protection Act of 1992.