Sirenian Conservation: Issues and Strategies in Developing Countries

Introduction

Introduction Ellen M. Hines tory in Sarasota, Florida, where he serves as senior scientist and director of the Center for Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Research. That same year he became co-chair of the Sirenian Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a post he held through 2008. For the period 2006–2008 Reynolds was elected to serve as president of the International Society for Marine Mammalogy, and he has served on the board of the International Federation of Mammalogists. Recently he has worked closely with the United Nations Environment Programme to develop and implement a Caribbean-wide Marine Mammal Action Plan. Lemnuel V. Aragones has been involved in marine mammal research and conservation since 1988. His research has ranged from field studies on dugongs (Philippines and Australia) to manatees (Florida) to dolphins and whales (Philippines). He received his Ph.D. from James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, in 1998. A member of the IUCN Sirenian Specialist Group since 1993, Aragones is currently involved in establishing the Philippine Marine Mammal Stranding Network and Database and has worked extensively with governmental and nongovernment organizations on various aspects of marine mammal research and conservation. He is an associate professor in the Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology at the University of the Philippines . Antonio Mignucci-Giannoni is a biological oceanographer specializing in the biology, ecology, management , and conservation of marine mammals, particularly manatees, in the Caribbean. He is the founder and director of the international conservation organization Red Caribeña de Varamientos (Caribbean Stranding Network), dedicated to the care, treatment, and rehabilitation of injured or stranded marine mammals, sea turtles, and sea birds. Mignucci has been an executive member of the IUCN Sirenian Specialist Group since 1994. In addition to his post at the Caribbean Stranding Network, he is a research professor at Inter American University in Puerto Rico. In October of 2003 I sent an e-mail to the sirenian scientific community to gauge interest in an edited volume on manatees and dugongs specifically in developing countries . This book as I envisioned it would emphasize conservation and management issues, research strategies, and the role of scientists in integrating their research into conservation. Within a week I received more than 60 responses from sirenian researchers all over the world wishing to contribute. I was both excited and overwhelmed. Luckily , I also found four co-editors, with amazingly similar visions, to partner with me on organizing prospective chapters and drafting proposals to publishers. My own research has mostly been with dugongs in Southeast Asia. My Ph.D. from the University of Victoria in Canada is based on research on dugongs along the Andaman coast of Thailand. Subsequently, I have also studied dugongs along the eastern Gulf coast of Thailand , Vietnam, Cambodia, and Myanmar; manatees in Belize; and coastal cetaceans in the Gulf of Thailand. I am an associate professor of geography at San Francisco State University with further expertise in geographic information science (geographic information systems, remote sensing, and global positioning systems). John Reynolds has been involved in research and conservation of sirenians and other marine mammals since 1974. He received M.S. (1977) and Ph.D. (1980) degrees from University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences for his research involving ecology, behavior, functional morphology, and pathology of manatees. In 1989 Reynolds became a member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors on Marine Mammals for the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission , the federal agency with oversight for all research and management of U.S. marine mammals. In 1990 he became chair of the Committee of Scientific Advisors, and in 1991 he was appointed by President G.H.W. Bush to serve as chair of the Marine Mammal Commission, a position he has retained through four presidents. In 2001 Reynolds began working for Mote Marine Labora- 2 Sirenian Conservation: Issues and Strategies in Developing Countries Miriam Marmontel is a Brazilian oceanographer who has been involved in marine mammal work since 1977. She received the M.Sc. from the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in Gainesville . Marmontel shifted from saltwater work to the Amazon in the early 1990s to study freshwater mammals. She now leads a research group with the Mamirauá Institute for Sustainable Development in western Brazil that focuses on manatee conservation but works with pink dolphins and giant otters as well. The group pioneered an Amazonian manatee return into...