Impacts on dugongs - The Great Barrier Reef: An Environmental History - page 100

cutlery handles. Soap was also manufactured using dugong stearin (the material
that remained in the filters after the oil had been drained) and this product was
exported to London. However, despite the lucrative prospects of the export trade,
and Hobbs' efforts to secure an overseas market for dugong products, the majority
of the dugong oil, hides and bones was sold at the Brisbane markets, while the
meat was cured and sold - or given away - at the fishing stations (Johnson, 2002,
p32).
In an account of 1876, Thorne (1876, pp248-9) acknowledged the abundance
of dugongs and described the fishing operations in the Moreton Bay area,
attributing their lack of success to the 'intemperance of the men employed'.
During the 1870s, dugong processing stations continued to operate at Tin Can,
Wide and Hervey Bays, although instances of contamination of dugong oil had
by that time affected the market. Thorne (1876, pp254, 262) reported that an
average dugong produced five or six gallons of oil and 100-200 pounds of meat,
and that a large animal could weigh as much as a ton and could produce up to
twenty gallons of oil: a much larger figure than Bennett (1860, p166) reported.
Thorne (1876, pp260, 265-6) also described extremely large herds of thousands
of dugongs, including one 'which appeared to fill the water' and was estimated to
be 'half a mile wide and from three to four miles long'. Considering the apparent
size of those herds and the extent of the dugong feeding grounds, Thorne saw no
limit to the potential of the commercial dugong fishery.
During the 1880s, more systematic analyses of dugong numbers and behaviour
were undertaken. Dugong meat was still readily sold in Brisbane, as Boyd (1882,
p30) acknowledged, but an apparent scarcity of dugongs was reported by J.
Lionel Ching of Maryborough, who stated: 'We left Great Sandy Island Strait
in 1880, and since our return, eighteen months since, have found the dugong
much scarcer' (cited in Fison, 1888, p764). In 1886, C. S. Fison, the Queensland
Inspector of Fisheries, reported that observations of dugongs had been made along
the coast; in 1887, he stated: 'There are a considerable number of [dugongs] still
in Moreton Bay, and already one man here with only one net has been able to
take 18 head during this season' (Fison, 1886, pp 833, 835; 1887, p123). Dugongs
were sold for £5 each and were caught with long nets made from manila rope.
A pattern to their abundance had also been noticed: dugongs were abundant in
southern Queensland waters after flood seasons, but they could easily be driven
away by boat traffic. The variable occurrence of the 'weed' (seagrass) on which
the dugongs fed was also recognised (Welsby, 1907; 1931, pp57, 72).
Disputes had arisen about the organisation of the fishery. One concern was the
advisability of expanding the existing system of dugong fishing licences. In 1888,
Ching called for the wider use of licences, claiming that he was the only licensed
dugong fisherman in Queensland, despite the fact that 'many parties' fished
for the animal to the north of Wide Bay. A second issue was the acceptability
of dugong fishing methods. Not all dugong fishers used the large-meshed nets
that Ching had adopted; smaller-meshed nets prevented dugong calves from
escaping, and the use of harpoons by other fishers led to the wasteful destruction