The Dugong Festival 2015 was held by Wildlife At Risk (WAR) and the Phu Quoc Marine Protected Area in Ham Ninh commune, Phu Quoc island district on December 27th.
The event aims to raise awareness and gain the attention of leaders, students and teachers, locals and tourists for the protection of the Dugong and other endangered marine creatures. Unlike previous festivals, the event this year lasted for one full day at Ham Ninh harbor and Duong beach in Ham Ninh commune.
The festival was attended by around 700 people, including leaders, teachers and students, local people of Phu Quoc island district and tourists. The festival started with a parade from Ham Ninh commune to Ham Ninh harbor, a famous tourism site on Phu Quoc island, and finished back at Ham Ninh commune. The parade was a successful and exciting event, with the participation of both local people and tourists.
After the parade, about 200 secondary school students, members of six WAR’s Marine Conservation Clubs throughout Phu Quoc island including Ghenh Dau, Bai Thom, Ham Ninh, An Thoi, Duong Dong 1 and Hon Thom, took part in a series of contests and exciting activities at Duong beach, Ham Ninh commune, for the rest of the day.
In addition to the parade, highlight activities of the festival included a contest on Dugong sand sculpture, photo contest and marine knowledge contest. Each club created a life-size model of a Dugong on the Duong beach. All the models were lively and attractive, and showed the good knowledge of the students about the endangered creatures. Each club also displayed a set of roughly 20 to 60 photos taken by the students throughout the year. The photos showed the beauty of and the threats to Phu Quoc's marine area. The marine knowledge contest, with a simple but exciting format, attracted a large number of participants. Many prizes were awarded to individuals and groups for their great products or performances during the festival.
“The Dugong Festival 2015, with many exciting and creative activities, became an unforgettable memory for each participant, which encourages them to take part in protecting Dugong and the Phu Quoc marine area. We expect that people take at least one practical action to protect Phu Quoc marine resources in particular and Vietnam’s marine resources in general so that our future generations could still benefit from the bountiful sea,” said Ms. Do Thi Thanh Huyen, WAR’s Wildlife Education Manager.
All participants also committed to protect Phu Quoc marine area by creating a Dugong and a sea turtle on large canvas. This festival is one of activities of the project titled “Conservation of Dugong and Biodiversity of Phu Quoc and Tho Chu islands”, which has been carried out since 2013 by WAR and Phu Quoc Marine Protected Area./.