Eva Paulus was awarded $20,000 from the Threatened Species Initiative to sequence the genomes of dugongs along their Australian range, with a special focus on remote regions like the Kimberley and Gascoyne region.

This will enable her to analyse the genomes of 60 additional dugong samples, a huge leap in the knowledge of dugong population genomics in Australia, where most of the samples have so far been collected along the east coast of Queensland.

In addition, she received $8,500 from the Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment & the Ecological Society of Australia, which will be used to further the collaboration with Traditional Owners who are managing dugong populations in their sea countries.