wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Gulf Daily News 1 Jul 07
Bahrain: Are coral reefs history?
By Adele O'Shea

BRITISH marine biologist Dr Charles Sheppard revealed the shocking extent of the loss of Bahrain's coral reefs, at a seminar held here in May.

Archived photographs and previous measurements from Dr Sheppard's 1985 survey of Bahrain's marine environment showed a healthy, flourishing underwater ecosystem, where equilibrium existed between organisms within that system.

Dr Sheppard described his re-visitation of the site in May this year as "depressing" and he described the large coral reef of Fasht Al Adhm as being a "bed of rubble" and "almost completely dead".

He attributed the collapse of the marine environment in Bahrain mainly to "enormously sloppy engineering". These words only confirmed what the average lay-person in Bahrain was already thinking.

Where land reclamation is taking place in Bahrain, one can witness huge mountains of sand being poured into the sea. And further out on the horizon, one can see the dredgers at work, scraping and sucking at the seabed, leaving behind a trail of destruction - depressing stuff indeed.

Within the last few days, it has been announced that a coral reef in the way of development of Bahrain Financial Harbour will be removed.

I have no illusions that this once thriving reef is presently nothing more than dead stumps of brittle limestone, but the removal of it is yet another concession from the natural world to accommodate the developers, which risks becoming an unheeded trend in Bahrain.

Another signal that all is not well in the marine environment is the news of hundreds of dead fish being washed ashore in Sitra and Sanad and a large black patch of sewage floating in Tubli Bay.

These unusual events have corresponded to the land reclamation at the bay for the construction of the new Sitra Bridge.

Since 1996, companies carrying out development projects have been required by law to submit environmental impact assessments (EIA) of their projects to the Public Commission for the Protection of Marine Resources, Environment and Wildlife for approval.

Surely, the potential water flow problems at Bahrain Financial Harbour and Tubli Bay, caused by land reclamation, would have been noted at the very early stages of the environmental impact assessments and not suddenly appeared at this late stage?

Dr Sheppard pointed a finger at "enormously sloppy engineering" contributing to the demise of Bahrain's marine environment, but who knows if the sloppy engineering is due to fast-track EIA's or sloppy implementation of the EIA's?

Perhaps, what has turned out to be the most significant revelation of the decision to remove the reef at Bahrain Financial Harbour is that the Public Commission claims it was not consulted on the matter.

It makes one wonder on how many other occasions was the commission bypassed on the fast-track lane to rapid development.

Bahrain is not only in the process of losing natural resources from the sea but also much of its cultural heritage.

As of yet, no-one has mentioned the state of the seagrass around Bahrain, which is a vital food source for endangered dugongs and green turtles and a key habitat for Bahrain's famous pearl oysters.

Bahrain's traditional food dishes once consisted of fresh, inexpensive local fish and shrimps. But now the readily available factory-raised, hormone-injected frozen chicken is more likely to be the staple food item of most Bahraini families.

The fishing-boat building yards, which used to be literally a stone's throw from the water's edge, have now closed down.

By all accounts, it appears to be far too late to restore the damaged coral reefs. These are living organisms, which can not be super-glued back together again to the ecosystem where they once thrived no longer exists.

But why was the marine environment allowed to get to this pitiful state with nothing being done? Why weren't the alarm bells sounded earlier? Why was it left to a British marine biologist to uncover the ugly truth and inform the public? Is this example of Bahrain's own "Inconvenient Truth", one that has grown too big to hide?

The sceptic in me even wonders why Dr Sheppard was brought back to Bahrain 20 years later to conduct a follow-up marine survey.

Incidentally, yet another new man-made luxury island is planned for Bahrain and this one is called Reef Island.

Ms O'Shea is a member of the Environmental Friends Society
links
Related articles on Global: marine issues
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com