Krabi Dugong Sighting Triggers New Boat Speed Zone

A silvery ripple across Ao Thueng Bay has rekindled hope for Thailand’s endangered dugong. Rangers have twice this week watched a mother guiding her playful calf through the seagrass meadows just offshore from Krabi’s busiest tourist hub — proof that years of patient habitat work are starting to pay off.

Fast facts for people on the Andaman coast

• 2 dugongs confirmed: one adult female, one juvenile.

• Feeding ground: Ao Thueng, inside Hat Noppharat Thara–Mu Ko Phi Phi National Park.

• Health check: mother 2 breaths/5 min, calf 4 breaths/5 min — considered strong.

• Risk zone: heavy long-tail and speedboat traffic.

• Response: new speed-reduction buoys and real-time patrols.

A gentle return to Ao Thueng

Rangers spotted the pair during their routine December survey, hovering above the meadow in 4 m-deep water. Using drones first, then a quiet electric dinghy, the team confirmed the calf’s body-condition score matched its mother’s robust BCS 3. Locals who work snorkelling tours say this is the first visible mother-and-young duo in the bay for at least 18 months.

Why Krabi cares — beyond cute photos

For residents who make a living from reef tours, kayaking or beachside food stalls, the appearance of a healthy dugong family is more than feel-good news. It signals that the seagrass beds, which also shelter juvenile fish and blue crabs, are recovering. Krabi Provincial Statistics Office counts tourism jobs at just under 62,000; many depend on an intact marine landscape. A single collision with a speeding tour boat can undo months of positive headlines.

Silent threats linger beneath the surface

Marine biologists warn that Andaman dugong numbers have slipped from roughly 280 in 2022 to 203 this year — a 27.5 % decline. The main culprits: shrinking seagrass, accidental net entanglement and boat strikes. Rangers recorded 112 strandings nationwide in the last fiscal year, with 8 carcasses later found minus their tusks. Even with the new buoy corridor, patrol teams still clock skippers topping 18 knots inside the 5-knot zone.

Seagrass comeback powered by community hands

Reversing that trend hinges on restoring the plant they eat. Over the past 12 months, university students, dive clubs and Muslim fishing cooperatives from nearby Ban Khlong Muang transplanted more than 11,000 seagrass shoots across 6 ha of seabed. Early surveys show an average 78 % survival rate, a figure researchers say beats many projects in Trang and Phuket. Healthy meadows not only feed dugongs; they lock up blue carbon, stabilize sediment and boost coastal fisheries that small villages rely on.

What happens next

Park chief Siriwat Saengchawee has ordered a 24-hour vessel-tracking trial using AIS beacons borrowed from the Port Authority. If the pilot reduces speeding incidents by even 30 %, officials plan to make the corridor permanent before next high season. Long-tail skippers have signalled support; a collision fine would cost more than a week’s fares.

Conservationists meanwhile urge visitors to choose operators displaying the new green-dugong flag, which certifies compliance with noise and speed limits. “Every ticket sold to a responsible boat keeps these animals off Thailand’s extinction list,” one ranger said while watching the calf surface, exhale, and disappear once more into the emerald grass.