In a bid to preserve marine life in the Gulf, Emirates Diving Association, with the help of Shell, has launched a new marine environment protection scheme, the Coral Monitoring Project.
Its focus is on two major threats to coral reefs around the UAE coastline – pollution and crown-of-thorns starfish.
The team at the Emirates Diving Association will be examining the various sources of pollution that are attacking the UAE’s coral reefs. Each major site will be dived several times a month to get an overview of the situation and make recommendations for improvement. Companies such as Shell who support these projects, play a huge part in preserving marine life for future generations. Shell is supporting the project not only financially – which enables the Committee to purchase vital equipment – but is also providing the project with scientific help such as analysis of the results of the Association’s findings.
Coral reefs are the world’s most biologically diverse marine ecosystems. Not only important assets to local and national economies, they provide materials for new medicines and income from tourism and recreation as well as protecting coastal communities from storms. Corals are suffering not only from industrial development, pollution and diseases but also from animals that feed on them such as the crown-of-thorns starfish.
