Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

Searching For Bondas and his other Dugong Buddies

Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Vanuatu

Howdy again!

My partner is dead keen to see a dugoing while we are in vanuatu so we are off to Epi for a few days to check it out and hopefully.... Can anyone please give us any tips on when and where is best, and the chances of seeing one of these intersting creatures....

Many thanks

Hi - I think the Epi dugong is still around - this one is docile and you can snorkel right up to it, and be ignored whilst observing it eating seagrass. The dugong is resident in Lamen Bay near the airstrip and there is a guest house in Lamen Bay. If you stand high on the beach and the sea is calm, you will see him surface occasionally, then you know where to swim to, as it is a big bay.
The famous dugong from Port Resolution in Tanna is dead - but he was a nasty piece of work and beat up lots of people who thought they could 'swim' with him.

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