Dubai Builds a New Reef Coral by Coral

Michael Grubb The Media Line 14 Dec 10;

With a barge, cap rocks and a lot of glue, divers aim to restore an underwater treasure

In Dubai, a city known for vast manmade landscapes in the form of palm-shaped islands and indoor ski slopes, a group of hotels and private citizens are joining up to try and restore some of the emirate’s lost natural environment.

Work officially began this past week on the Al-Murjan Dubai Reef Rehabilitation project, a painstaking effort to reconstruct by hand a reef coral by coral. Financed by Shangri-La Hotel Dubai, Traders Hotel Dubai and the Dubai Ladies Club, and conducted by the Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG), the organizers are starting on a trial basis before going ahead with a large-scale project.

“A lot of the development has disrupted the natural coral community, and a lot of people who know that would like to see corals brought back to Dubai,” Keith Wilson, marine program director of EMEG, told The Media Line.

Around the world, coral reefs are endangered by rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, coastal pollution and physical damage. In Dubai and the other Gulf emirates, breakneck development and desalination have created coral graveyards, threatening tourism and fishing. Nevertheless, some experts question the long-term effectiveness of coral reef transplantation.

The project was originally proposed by the Dubai Ladies Club, whose activities include a Ladies Dive, the only organized dive available to local women. Development in the area of the groups’ beach has damaged the underwater scenery for which divers go under. The idea is to bring back some of the natural life back to the area.

The initial stages of the project include placing 42 tons of cap rock stones, naturally occurring rock formations of cemented sand each weighing two tons, which will be transported from nearby Ghantoot beach by barge. They will be placed at a site five meters under water and over 100 meters offshore. Using epoxy glue, some 400 corals of various species will be affixed to the stones, where EMEG hopes they will grow and thrive on their own.

Wilson said this is the second time that they have undertaken such a project in Dubai. In 2008, EMEG, which is a non-profit dedicated to preserving the region’s marine biodiversity, transplanted some 11,000 corals to a location on the Palm Jebel Ali, one of three artificial archipelagos built along the Dubai coast. He deemed the project a success.

“After almost three years, 95% of the corals there are alive and thriving,” he said.

However, some experts have raised doubts about the long term viability of transplanted corals. Maoz Fine, coral reef ecology expert at the Bar Ilan University Institute for Marine Biology in Israel, says the incredibly high biodiversity supported by natural coral reefs is difficult, if not impossible, to imitate.

“It’s almost impossible to recreate the true diversity of a living reef,” Fein said. “It won’t support the millions of species that are so dependent upon corals. You need a high diversity of invertebrates and fish, and you need a high diversity of corals. That’s not usually the case when you transplant and propagate corals.”

Jack Silverman, a marine biologist with the Israel National Institute of Oceanography, echoed Fein’s concerns that our knowledge of coral reef ecology is still too limited to be able to reproduce the natural biodiversity of these environments.

“To the best of my knowledge, we don’t know the full list of components that define a healthy and viable coral reef,” he said.

By beginning with a small scale pilot project, the scientists at EMEG hope to address concerns. According to Wilson, the project will undergo a full evaluation at three months, six months and one year. Only if the pilot reef thrives will they continue on to the larger-scale phase of the project, which will include an artificial reef built in a star shape and measuring 100 meters across.

The shape of the projected reef isn’t to create a tourist attraction. Wilson said a star formation provides the best environment for the ref to develop on its own. Once the test site is completed, volunteer divers from the Dubai Ladies Club will monitor their health.

“This is the ideal way to do it,” John Burt, assistant professor of biology at New York University Abu Dhabi, told The Media Line. “By doing a pilot project they are trying to ensure that the techniques used will be effective in maintaining survivorship and that the donor site will be suitable.”

The immediate concerns of the Al-Murjan project have to do with the process of transplantation itself. “The issue with coral transplantation is that coral is fairly sensitive to being handled,” Burt told The Media Line. “A great deal of care has to be taken in the logistics of moving and the selecting of a site that is adequate to the needs of the coral.”

“A lot of it has to do with technique,” Wilson said. “You have to be careful so as not to stress the corals too much, and also during the process of placement, but we have a good track record.”

For Wilson and others involved the fundamental question is what would happen if this project, and others like it, didn’t happen at all.

The coral specimens being transplanted will come from natural reefs that will soon be destroyed to make way for Dubai’s continued development.

“There are a number of sites that are earmarked for dredged channels and they [the corals] will be coming from the impact area of these dredged channels,” Wilson said. “We are only taking from areas where they would have been lost anyways.”