Island Profile
Atub (Dugong Island) is a garden island that has important cultural sites. We use the island to grow food and harvest timber and other plants. The reefs around the island provide us with kabar (trochus), kayar (crayfish) and other marine species that support our livelihoods.
It is a well-vegetated sandy coral cay covered with herblands, grasslands, shrublands, and closed forest dominated by owar pinar sau (bird lime tree). We hold Traditional Ecological Knowledge on these natural systems, including how seasons, winds and wave affect the movement of beach sands. It is also a nesting site for waru kaz (green turtle), wunuwa (hawksbill turtle), owry (flat back turtle), sara (bridled tern and roseate tern), kipru (silver gull), dua (common and black noddy), silaw (little tern) and surka (orange footed scrub fowl).
Atub has been impacted in the past by land clearing, when timber was heavily used for the trochus industry. Today, commercial fishing nets continue to damage the reefs. Current ranger work on the island includes monitoring the health of Pinar sau (Pisonia forest); and mapping of the old garden sites, and other natural and cultural values, using both Traditional Ecological Knowledge and biodiversity surveys.