UAE: Marine scientists reviving bleached reefs with coral nurseries
In 2017, the UAE lost up to 70 percent of its corals when water temperatures reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit
Off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, marine scientists are using coral nurseries to restore reefs that had been bleached as a result of warming waters.
Marine scientist Hamad al-Jailani, who is part of the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi’s (EAD) coral restoration program, picks reefs from a nursery and packs them in a box of seawater, studying them carefully to make sure they haven’t lost their color. The once bleached corals are now big, healthy, and ready to be moved back to their original reefs in the hope they’ll thrive once more.
“We try to grow them from very small fragments up to — now some of them have reached — the size of my fist,” al-Jailani told AP News.
Coral bleaching occurs when sea temperatures rise and sun glares flush out algae that give the corals their color, turning them white. Corals can survive bleaching events but can’t support marine life, threatening the populations that depend on them.
Nurseries give corals the ideal conditions to recover, which are clear waters with strong currents and the right amount of sunlight. Al-Jailani periodically checks the corals’ growth, removes any potentially harmful seaweed and seagrass, and even lets the fish feed off the corals to clean them, until they’re healthy enough to be returned to their systems.
In 2017, the UAE lost up to 70 percent of its corals, especially around Abu Dhabi, when water temperatures reached 99 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the EAD.
The EAD has been rehabilitating and restoring corals since 2021 when reefs off the Emirati coast faced their second bleaching event in just five years – one of many initiatives across the Gulf state to protect reefs and marine life. While there had been some progress, experts are concerned for the future of coral reefs in a warming world.
