Marine biologist is studying predator’s state in Arabian Gulf

Dubai: The sight of hundreds of bloodied dead sharks, waiting to be sold at fish markets across the UAE does not bode well for the ocean’s super-predator.

Sharks play an important role in the ocean’s food chain and their decline is already being felt in commercial fisheries worldwide.

While fisheries statistics around the world indicate that 80 per cent of the existing global shark reserves have already been fished out, no research has been carried out on the Arabian Gulf’s shark population.

However a new study on sharks in the Gulf has just been launched in collaboration with fishermen and the UAE University in Al Ain.

Ecosystem collapse

“The state of sharks in the Arabian Gulf is a blank,” said Rima Jabado, marine biologist and a doctoral degree candidate at UAE University. “Attention should be given to sharks — they’re the apex predator and their demise could lead to the collapse of the marine ecosystem.”

In Australia, it’s been reported that low numbers of sharks have led to an increase in the number of octopuses, who without the predators to keep them at bay, devour the entire lobster population.

And with fewer sharks along the US Atlantic Coast, cownose rays have increased so much that they’ve wiped out bay scallops by feeding on them.

This summer, Spain’s Ministry of the Environment said the decline of natural marine predators was likely the cause of jellyfish blooms that led to the closure of several beaches along the Costa Blanca.

Rima’s research will monitor the shark population in the UAE to find out which species are here and exactly where they’ve come from. The project is part of her doctoral study on shark fishing in the UAE which focuses on species diversity, distribution and abundance, as well as feeding ecology and the fin trade.

Her three-year research has already begun. She has so far interviewed 126 fishermen from landing sites all over the UAE.

“The majority of the fishermen would want to protect sharks and believe in the protection of fish for a sustainable fishery,” said Rima. “But if sharks are caught in a fisherman’s net, should they be thrown back? Perhaps they should be brought in? [This subject] causes them to debate. Some complain that sharks just make holes in their nets.”

Data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation showed that between 1985 and 2000, shark landings in the UAE were relatively stable with between 1,300 and 1,950 tonnes per year.

A decade ago, the UAE was already considered one of the main exporters of shark fins to Hong Kong with 400 to 500 tonnes per year being sent to East Asia to meet demand for shark fin soup, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

By Christopher Pala*

BONAIRE, Dutch Antilles , Sep 29, 2010 (IPS/IFEJ) – Scientists are closely examining the reefs of this island just north of Venezuela to determine why it has escaped the devastation that wiped out 85 percent of the Caribbean’s corals since the 1970s.

Just in the past 30 years, coral cover in the Caribbean has gone from a healthy 65 percent to perhaps 20 percent. New diseases and algae invasions have wiped out much of the corals that stretch from the southeastern U.S. state of Florida, where the coral cover is tiny, to Bonaire, where a good portion of those last 20 percent is located. The Caribbean coast of Central America is equally damaged.

Warmer, more acidic oceans predicted for the future because of climate change are expected to wreak even more devastation on the survivors. When the water gets too warm, the corals appear to beach and then usually die.

Though the Persian Gulf suffered a similar fate, mostly because of oil pollution, the Caribbean is by far the largest region to have lost most of its corals, which are colonies of tiny, individual animals that, like farmers, live off equally tiny algae.

“This means millions of people are losing an abundant supply of cheap, nutritious fish,” explains Andrew Bruckner, chief scientist of the Washington-based Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation. In addition, he and other scientist say, corals are used for building materials, protection from waves and to attract tourists.

Bonaire, in contrast, enjoys exceptionally clear water, which has made it a diving Mecca since the 1970s. In a classic virtuous circle, the local government has successfully restricted fishing to keep the fish and coral reefs in good shape and the free-spending recreational divers coming.

Still, diseases prevalent all over the Caribbean have almost wiped out the elkhorn and staghorn corals that once carpeted Bonaire’s shallowest parts, just off the beach, and provided habitat for myriad edible fish and crustaceans.

A little deeper, many of the massive star corals, key building blocks of reefs, have suffered the same fate, but quite a few are still alive.

On a recent morning in Bonaire, Bruckner, a coral scientist, laden with a scuba tank, a clipboard and measuring devices, wades into the water off one of Bonaire’s deserted, unspoiled beaches, known to divers as Taylor Made.

He is leading a team of a dozen colleagues on a week-long expedition to count dead and healthy corals, along with fish populations. Under water, Bruckner points to some of the last staghorns. Then we reach some giant star corals, up to six metres high, that are between 500 and 1,000 years old and he raises his thumb: they are olive green and healthy.

A little farther, other star corals are half olive green, half brown, separated by a whitish line. It’s called white plague disease, one of a family of pathologies that have decimated Caribbean corals. Bruckner gives a thumbs-down. But on many of the dead corals, he points to little lumps of live coral on the dead parts: thumbs-up again.

Back on the pebble beach, Bruckner takes off his mask and remarks, “What we’re seeing here is a reef that’s suffered from disease and bleaching, but the new corals tell us the reef is rebounding fast.”

That’s because there are still enough algae-eating fish around to keep the surface of the dead corals clean. It helps that there’s very little rain here and that hurricanes, which damage reefs, are rare. In the rest of the Caribbean, dead coral soon are covered with algae and the coral larvae have nowhere to settle, so after a hurricane, very little grows back.

But in Bonaire, Bruckner says far that far less degradation had occurred since 2005, when he last surveyed the island’s reef, than in the rest of the Caribbean in the same period.

Fishermen and polluters are only the most tangible killers of corals. But as the Earth gets warmer, hot-water spells wipe out entire reefs. The first major temperature spike came in 1998, and most Caribbean reefs never recovered. This year promises to be the hottest since 1998 in the Caribbean, and some coral die-offs have already been observed.

And if warmer water, a lack of algae-eaters and pollution were not enough, there’s another enemy lurking in the future: ocean acidification. As the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by a third in the past two centuries, a third of that increase has been absorbed by the oceans. The result is that ocean water is now more acidic than it was, which makes it harder for corals to build their skeletons.

The effects are already being felt. “In the Great Barrier Reef, the calcification rate has slowed 15 percent since 1990,” says Ove Hoegh-Gulberg, a coral biologist at the University of Queensland, Australia.

“Very few corals will survive this century and they will be in very bad shape,” adds Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution.

But Bruckner is more optimistic. “The historical record shows corals are pretty adaptable,” he says over dinner at the divers’ hotel. “If we can restrict fishing and pollution and create more marine reserves, I think we can save some of the Caribbean’s coral reefs. But even if we don’t, in places like the remote Pacific islands, I think the more vulnerable coral species will die off and be replaced by tougher ones. I just don’t see them dying off completely.”

*This story is part of a series of features on biodiversity by IPS, CGIAR/Biodiversity International, IFEJ and UNEP/CBD, members of Communicators for Sustainable Development (http://www.complusalliance.org).

(END)

In most places a 260 percent increase in tourist arrivals would be a cause for celebration. Not so for Hanifaru Bay.

Located off the uninhabited island of Hanifaru in Baa Atoll, the bay is a small enclosed reef the size of a football field. But what makes Hanifaru Bay unique and attracts tourists is the phenomena that occurs during the south west monsoon from May to November.

Interplay between the lunar tide and the south west monsoon enables build up of a massive concentration of plankton, which in turn attracts hundreds of huge manta rays and gigantic whale sharks. It’s usual to see up to 200 manta rays in a feeding frenzy, accompanied by whale sharks. The bay is one of the two sites in Maldives which acts as a cleaning station as well as feeding site for whale sharks.

Hanifaru Bay was declared a Marine Protected site last year by the government, in recognition of its importance in the ecosystem. When the bay was featured in National Geographic magazine last year, and a BBC Natural World documentary this year, the site’s fame spread all over the world.

Price of fame

“Sometimes we see up to 14 boats crammed into that little space,” says Mohamed Fathuhy, island chief of nearby Dharavandhoo.

He rues the fact that sometimes snorkelers and divers in the bay outnumber the animals.

Regulations announced by the Ministry of Environment on making the bay an MPA say that only five boats can engage in the area at any given time. It also limits the number of swimmers or divers to 80 at any one time.

However Fathuhy says some visitors to try and touch the animals. Safari boats sometimes take money from tourists saying there is a charge for snorkeling in the area. And overcrowding is so bad that crews of visiting safari boats and others had almost come to blows over access.

Ahmed Sameer, general secretary of Youth Association of Kamadhoo, another island nearby, says his co-islanders share the concern: “We are worried that if this goes on, the animals might stop coming and the place might be destroyed.”

Asked why the interest in Hanifaru Bay, Sameer says that Kamadhoo islanders have always been a very eco-conscious people.

“Every household in the island recently signed a pact to not harvest turtle eggs or take turtles, and participate in the turtle conservation project by Four Seasons,” he explains.

Concerned and galvanised into action by the efforts of Seamarc, an environmental consultancy firm, and Four Seasons Landaa Giraavaru, Fathuhy and Sameer is a part of a delegation that visited the Environment Ministry yesterday to share their concern and to suggest co-management of the site.

Cries of a community

The delegation consisted of representatives from the islands of Dhonfanu,Dharavandhoo,Thulhadhoo and Kamadhoo. Province minister Ali Niyaz, Dhonfanu Councillor, Director General of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Mohamed Zuhair, Mari Saleem of SEAMARC, Guy Stevens of Maldives Manta Ray Project and Executive members of Liveaboard Association Shaheena Ali and Fayaz Ismail attended the meeting alongside Minister of Environment Mohamed Aslam and Deputy Minister Mohamed Shareef.

Marie a passionate advocate of co management said “Baa atoll community would like to work with the government to help implement the regulations in place.”

“A cross section of the people in the atoll as well as stakeholders in the tourism industry, support the initiative to develop and manage Hanifaru Bay sustainable.”

The figures in Fathuhy’s presentation was impressive.

“Manta ray tourism generates an estimated US$8.1 million annually,” Fathuhy explained. Hanifaru Bay alone is estimated to generate US$ 500,000 in direct revenue for Maldivian economy this year.

A discussion ensued over wheather Baa Atoll could retain the revenues and the danger of the animals deserting the area if things continued as they were.

Some alterations to the existing regulations were proposed such as penalties for those who don’t adhere to regulations: having a fine for those coming into contact with the animals, and banning speedboats and boats with un-protected outboard engines, as well as implementing a compulsory certification system for guides and boat captains working there, and banning scuba diving in the vicinity.

Way forward

With Minister Aslam admitting that central government had difficulties in managing the MPA as well as other protected dive sites, the question arose over how best to go about it.

The lack of wardens or an effective system of policing the area is an acute problem in Maldives concerning MPA’s.

Hence the group discussed ways of managing the site, government or EPA managing it, going for a business model or a community based one.

The idea of forming a corporative found the most supporters with Aslam saying that “it’s a structured way of doing it as the laws are also already in place.”

Ismail and Shaheena from Liveaboard association were adamant that government had to play a major role in managing the site.

Shaheena pointed out that it would be unfair if any group got ownership of the place. “The process can’t be too democratic.”

“Tourists that hire speedboats from Male and go to that area will be disappointed if they can’t have access to the area.”

The delegation from Baa Atoll went back to their respective communities at the behest of Aslam to draw and propose a practical plan to manage the area.

While Baa Atoll community and the government try and figure out the best way to manage the area, the future of Hanifaru Bay hangs in balance along with its seasonal inhabitants.