10 June, 2007

Storm aftermath: coral reefs are severely damaged

Yesterday we took a trip along the east coast: Dibba, Khorfakkan, Fujairah. They've been hit by a storm pretty badly. Not as bad as our neighbours, but still, very seriously. It is not about people or buildings, it is a small thing that very few people notice these days: corals.

90% of coral reefs in most popular dive sites are gone. Torn off, thrashed and washed ashore by the storm. A bottom at Martini Rock, Snoopy island, Dibba Rock, small reef between Dibba and Zighi beach all bare rocks now. Most of the beaches covered by thick layer of broken coral.

Dive instructor Margaret at Maku dive centre says there are very few corals left. Lobsters, Moray eels and other fish who usually used to fined a refuge in coral branches are swimming frantically across the waters in search of vacant holes. Even sharks seem sort of disoriented by a total change in a bottom profile.

I do not like to use big words in such circumstances, but this is a serious ecologic catastrophe for the area.


14 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Ignoring the troll....

This is terrible news.

Anonymous said...
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Al Ain Taxi said...

Well said, Sam.

Anonymous said...
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rosh said...

damn this is pretty bad...

Lirun said...

oh no thats terrible.. hopefully it will at least inspire a conservation spree..

Female Chauvinistic Pig said...

Seems like I missed a party here last night. :-)

The bad thing is that corals take about 100 years to grow back to form a reef, but they are very sencitive to temperatures. So they may actually never grow back if the waters will tend to get warmer (and more polluted)

Anonymous said...

Storms and forces of nature are beyond man's control. It is quite useless crying over the damage to corals because of it. If we really want to proctect nature including coral. We should look at thought less destruction of nature in the name of development. This is within mankind power to control. Try and do someting about this!
Sayonara!

Anonymous said...
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flamin said...

This is sad...and scary too.

Tim Newman said...

Damn shame...I used to love snorkelling at Snoopy Island.

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