Known commonly as the manatee, sea cow or dugong (corruption from Malay name duyong) in the science world, this docile marine mammal feeds on seagrasses in shallow coastal waters and is often associated in Visayan folklore as the mermaid (i.e., kataw) of Philippine mythology.
The association of the kataw to a sea cow has given rise to the fable of the mermaid. Fr. Diego de Bobadilla, SJ, who arrived in the Philippines in 1616 to assume as a lecturer in Philosophy and Theology at his congregation’s school in Manila, and later as principal of Colegio de San José (now San Jose Major Seminary at the Ateneo de Manila University) wrote a personal account:
“The woman-fish is so called because its face and breast are quite like those of women, whom it also resembles in its manner of copulation with the male… Some have tried to assert that those fish were the sirens of the sea, so celebrated among the poets; but they have nothing of the beauty of face and of the voice that is attributed to sirens.”
In Visayan folk tales, mermaids are related with bad luck, and disaster, and often depicted as ominous symbols. They are described as having the power to shoo away schools of fish, drown unsuspecting swimmers, or capsize small watercraft. Legends also abound of mortals falling for the mermaids—portrayed with fishtail or clubbed feet and having human features—and bearing children with them. More creative descriptions of mermaids are seen in movies and TV shows.
Accounts of sea cows spotted in Philippine waters date to as early as the 17th century. Fr. Bobadilla had his own personal encounter with the manatee, which he described in a narrative:
“That fish is as large as a calf; and its flesh… tastes like beef. It is caught with lines as thick around as the finger, and when the line becomes fast within [its mouth] it is killed by javelin-thrusts. Its bones and teeth have great virtue against all sorts of dysentery, especially against bloody discharges.” In some accounts, its meat as “greatly superior to that of the green turtle.”
Dugongs survey bays, coves, and inlets for food; they chiefly feed on underwater plants. Though without natural predators outside human beings, their juveniles at times become food for saltwater crocodiles, killer whales, and coastal sharks.
English explorer and pirate William Dampier, in his brief sojourn of Mindanao in 1686, which included a bypass of the Davao Gulf, related his encounter with a sea cow in his diary:
“The chiefest Fish are Bonetas, Snooks, Cavally’s Bremes, Mullets, 10 Pounders, etc. Here are also plenty of Sea Turtle, and small Manatee, which are not near so big as those in the West-Indies. The biggest that I saw would not weigh above 6oo Pound, but the flesh both of the Turtle and Manatee are very sweet.”
In a 2011 article, ‘Saving Mermaids in the Davao Gulf,’ WWF-Philippines ranked the gulf of Davao “as one of the priority conservation areas of the Sulu-Sulawesi Marine Eco-region.” But through the years, its population has vividly failed, supported by the decline in sightings.
Dugong population, already threatened by man’s neglect of conserving nature, has been affected in recent decades. For instance, in January 2007, a 2.7-meter-long sea cow weighing 300 kilograms was found dead near the shores of Dapia Village, Barangay Santa Cruz, Talikod Island.
In March 2011, a 30-kilogram baby sea cow was found dead along the shores of Dahican, Mati City; it was the fourth dead dugong found in the coastal village in the last four months. Its death, in the absence of injuries, was attributed to an illness.
In April 2016, a 150-kilogram dugong washed ashore in Barangay Aplaya, Digos City. The post-mortem exam indicated the sea cow’s “vital organs showed signs of hemorrhage. There was also a cyst growth in the intestine aside from a lot of parasites, both roundworms and tapeworms. The lungs and other parts of the system showed abnormality and signs of damage.”
