Sea cows used to clear weeds

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 34021, 10 December 1975, Page 9

Sea cows used to clear weeds

(By

CELIA HADDON,

in the.

"Sunday Times," London) |

Fast-growing waterweeds that choke canals, and ditches can be a serious threat to irrigation schemes in hot countries. In Bengal, for! instance, the rapidlyspreading water hyacinth has put some 25,000 acres out of use. fti India, expensive irrigation schemes have become so clogged up that the flow of water is! down more than twothirds. Now a modest suggestion has been made by a group of scientists, who acknowi ledge that both herbicides i and machines to clear the 1 waterways are too expensive for developing nations. A cheap and natural alternative remains — the humble; sea cow. i Sea cows, or manatees,! j are huge seal-like creatures, i that live in herds off the coast of Florida and South; America, Columbus, when he, first saw one, thought it was; a mermaid. Unforuntately their numbers are dwindling,l but the scientists recommend an international centre for research both into conservation, and their weedcontrol possibilities. Already in Guyana about 80 aea cow* have taken up a

new life in the canals of a sugar estate. They were put into the waterways about 15 years ago and have kept them clear of weeds ever since. No money has to be spent on their maintenance, and the sugar company has saved hundreds of pounds in weed-cutting. In the same country four sea cows are employed by the Georgetown Water and Sewages Works. They keep the weeds down in a canal that leads to a large water reservoir. For 22 years the manatees have been operating efficiently without fouling the water. “Manatees appear to be very systematic as weedclearing agents,” reports the Guyanese National Science Research Council in a booklet reporting on the scientists’ meeting last year. “They begin at a'point in the weed patch and move in consort, eating at the edges until the patch is consumed. Canal banks are cleared right up to the soil bank.” . The vast animals adapt well to captivity, and in theory could be slaughtered for their meat in the same way as other water cattle. One drawback in the irrigation work is that their trusting habits make them vulnerable to unscrupulous poachers. The other is that they rarely breed ,jn captivity. If this could be changed, the sea cow might have a glowing future as a domesticated ani-. mab