Sea-life of Arab Gulf region in troubled waters: Scientists

Manama 

Scientists have urged the gulf countries, including Bahrain to give immediate attention over the issue of the protection of marine life and habitats.

A detailed assessment of 173 marine protected areas in Bahrian, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and Iran carried out by scientists pointed out that little arrangements have been made in most of the so called protected areas in the region to protect endangered species.

Regional and International scientists have called on authorities in the region to make more efforts to protect the marine life as well as the habitats such as such as coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass beds. 

“A lot of the protected marine areas here are small and are close to shore. So they are really vulnerable to all the impacts of urbanization as well as development and I would argue that a lot of them are lost. If there is no more viable population of the reef or anything to protect - which I can imagine close to some of these dredging activities- why not move them to some area where it makes more sense,” Coastal management consultant Hanneke Van Lavieren said. 

University of Warwick Professor Charles Sheppard warned that the Gulf's Coral reefs could disappear within our lifetime if steps are not taken for its preservation. "Coastal construction is done in a way which is not careful enough. rather than building out to sea, developers could bring the sea in as has been done in Kuwait, for example," he said.

“Every time something is build out to the sea, a productive habitat ius being destroyed gradually. It is so obvious that the rate of deterioration is fast enough that in your lifetime, you will see a collapse of the Gulf unless something changes,” Prof Sheppard said.