This Gulf of Mexico oil spill may make Exxon Valdez seem like child’s play. Image via MNN

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, is already being referred to by many as “President Obama’s Katrina.” The ongoing spill, a direct result of an explosion on an offshore oil drilling platform has resulted in millions of gallons of crude oil moving toward the American Gulf Coast in an ever widening oil slick that is “threatening to surpass the 1989 Alaskan Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster that occurred 20 years ago,” according to CNN.

President Obama himself went on nation-wide TV to say “although British Petroleum is responsible for the damage being done (since the well was in a field being explored by BP) we all share responsibility for the consequences of the environmental and economic damage being caused by this tragedy”.

Already, fishing grounds off the Louisiana coast, as well as waterfowl nesting and breeding grounds, are threatened by the spill. Certain fish species such as bluefin tuna, which breed in the Gulf of Mexico, may be especially in danger.

The plight of bluefin tunas from over-fishing was already noted in my article on March 26, this year.

Why this current environmental nightmare may have implications for other parts of world, including the Middle East, is evident due to current offshore exploration for natural gas now going on in the Eastern Mediterranean. The environmental ramifications of offshore drilling for natural gas in this region was also noted in another article on Green Prophet. Oil and gas spills make us mad and worried.

The present oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is still to early to come to a final conclusion as to the magnitude of the damage that will be caused. But critics to the current US Administration say that like the Katrina hurricane disaster in August, 2006, the response by the Obama Administration is “too little – too late.”

Due to this, and the implications this disaster will have on offshore drilling in other areas (including the eastern Mediterranean), more will be said about this subject in future articles. Meanwhile you can follow updates on the Gulf of Mexico spill on the US Environment Protection Agency, via Mother Nature Network.

It doesn’t take a whole lot of common sense to figure this one out: you build monolithic structures and artificial islands on a fragile seashore along the Persian Gulf, have oil tankers pulling petrochemicals from the land which leaks into the water. Add a little global warming, sewage and fish farming to the mix, and well, corals –– one of the most delicate structures in the marine ecosystem –– just die.

That’s what’s been happening west of the city of Abu Dhabi, the capitol of the United Arab Emirates, where a coral “wipe out” 10 years ago, has failed to revive itself. The whole sad story of the mess humanity is doing to this world makes me think of the old Bruce Cockburn song “Wondering Where the Lions Are.”

According to the Abu Dhabi newspaper, The National, the coral reefs west Abu Dhabi are not regrowing, as was hoped. Now, a US-Abu Dhabi team seeks to find out why. Led by Prof. John Burt from New York University, the team will investigate and study nine locations along the Abu Dhabi coastline to find out more.

“We are covering reefs all the way from the border with Qatar to the border with Dubai,” said Prof Burt to the newspaper, who noted that only around 20% of the original coral is left since he started monitoring bleaching events.

The reef in question, genus Acropora, west of Abu Dhabu is particularly sensitive to environmental changes. They are always almost the first ones to die in cases of high salinity, temperature or high amounts of sediment,” Prof Burt said.

Bye, bye grouper bye, bye

We already know that although coral reefs cover just a small amount of the ocean floor and they house some its greatest marine life diversity. In the Abu Dhabu region, if coral disappear so will certain types of commercial fishing, such as the orange spotted grouper. Pollution from commercial fish farming and silt from coastal destruction takes its toll on marine life – we’ve already learned about the effects of coastal erosion in this evolutionary hotspot, so why the big question of where the corals are. Human activity have killed them.

Reefs east of Abu Dhabi have showed signs of recovery, but those in the west have not. Prof. Burt believes that western conditions such as high salinity and warmer temperatures could be the reason. Or poor water circulation. We think it’s all these factors mixed in with all of the above manmade causes: coastal erosion, pollution and global warming. Meanwhile Prof. Burt is going to test the waters with a series of ceramic plates at nine locales to see what clings to the surface. Coral larvae he’s to collect may give some important clues. We hope some proof to the international community who can stop the frenetic takeover of the Gulf waterways.

Meanwhile, if you are still wondering where the coral reefs – or lions are – mull over the question of our place in history with this great Bruce Cockburn song… thinking about eternity (see video below). If you want to do your part, consider joining or supporting an eco-organization in the United Arab Emirates. We wish we knew of some worthwhile to recommend. Start with the UAE’s environment ministry. They might have some good ideas.

Click here to view the embedded video.

(Above image: Pollution from Iraq’s Tigris River flows straight into the Persian Gulf. Image via AP and the website utilities ME).

Green Prophet has reported on the research of Dr. Salit Kark a couple of months ago. I went on to interview her, and here’s a story about our conversation and her research that aims to save billions in conservation efforts in the unique Middle East region.

An Israeli researcher is playing a leading role in developing a pan-Mediterranean conservation effort which could save more than $67 billion for the 25 governments whose countries are situated around the Mediterranean Basin. Along with her researcher husband and an Australian colleague, Dr. Salit Kark recently wrote a paper that was the cover story in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers sought to determine how much energy could be saved if countries within the Mediterranean Basin were to collaborate on conservation decisions and efforts. After crunching the numbers, they estimated huge cost savings if the governments would merely work together.

Using prediction software that excluded political limitations, Kark and her co-authors ascertained that when coordinated across national boundaries, conservation efforts could achieve significantly higher results at lower costs than those planned within individual states.

“We wanted to investigate the costs and benefits of international collaboration on biodiversity conservation,” Kark tells ISRAEL21c.

“We chose the terrestrial Mediterranean Basin due to its complexity. On the one hand it is an important global biodiversity hotspot with many endemic and rare species. On the other, it holds over 25 countries with 250 million people, and large threats are posed to its unique biodiversity. Currently, conservation efforts are largely uncoordinated across the whole region,” she relates.

Hoping for collaboration prompted by the EU

The plan may be sound on paper, but unfortunately, convincing these countries to collaborate is quite a challenge, with many officially at war with each other. Because of this, conservation groups have tended to focus their efforts on smaller indigenous regions. Still, with deteriorating conditions in the marine environment and on land, Kark believes the time is ripe for a sea change in the way countries manage their future.

A bird researcher and animal conservationist, Kark is the third generation of her family to work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU). Born in Jerusalem some 40 years ago, she sees her work as part of the family legacy. A mother of two boys, she is encouraged by the joint projects that Israel is involved in with Jordan and Egypt.

While Israel’s peaceful relations with the two countries are lukewarm at best, collaboration on government and academic levels does exist, some in the field of conservation. A sabbatical year at Queensland University in Australia, where Kark is an honorary professor, led to connections with Egyptian biologists who are “interested in what we do,” she says.

Kark hopes that through EU partners, who can broker projects, many more joint conservation projects will be instigated in the Mediterranean region, which also includes countries such as Italy, Greece, France, and Spain with which Israel has friendly relations. “Conservation is the easiest way to go. Birds and other animals don’t stop at the border… polluted water doesn’t stop flowing at the border,” she says.

A peace park for animals

If cooperation could start tomorrow, Kark, who is hosting an international workshop for conservation biologists in Israel later this month to get the ball rolling, says that first-up countries should prioritize their efforts, and at the very least inform other countries about each other’s conservation intentions.

She proposes a ‘Peace Park’ between Israel and Syria, not unlike the one criticized by Prof. Eyal Zisser. “If you set up a nature reserve on both sides of a border, even if uncoordinated [through diplomatic ties], the animals will use it,” says Kark, who sees our future as humans intertwined with nature and its biodiversity.

But governments have to act fast, she admonishes. If for example, researchers focused only on clean water in the Mediterranean region, and not on the freshwater fish, birds and salamanders living in and around this water, “we’d be left with clean water, but not its life-sustaining processes,” she says.

In their study, the researchers also suggest where efforts may be focused to optimize resources and avoid disturbing human settlements. “If you look at our study, which includes data on freshwater fish, reptiles and amphibians, these are endemic to this region. If it goes extinct from our region, it goes extinct from the world,” declares Kark.

Creating change where it’s needed most

“My family taught me that if we decide to make a change in the world, we have to do it in the places where it is needed. I can’t just protect animals and plants, but need to work with people, too,” says the scientist who hopes that by fostering collaboration, some of our most precious animal and plant life that’s unique to the Mediterranean Basin will be protected from extinction.

Kark’s South African grandparents Prof. Sidney Kark and Dr. Emily Kark, both doctors, were pioneers in community health. They initiated a public health program for Zulus to train nurses and doctors in better healthcare practices, saving the lives of many black babies.

Ten years after the advent of the apartheid regime in 1948, when community health for the black population was no longer a priority, they moved to Israel and set up community health programs there. Their granddaughter confesses that she feels she has much to live up to, with grandparents who established the Hadassah and Hebrew University Department of Social Medicine.

Her father Prof. Jeremy Kark was born in a Zulu district in apartheid South Africa. Both her parents are academics at HU. Kark, whose first name Salit means ’songbird,’ began her research career by studying conservation, with a focus on birds. Today, with a broad view of the ecosystem, she’s endeavoring to inspire world leaders to combine their efforts.

(This story was first published on ISRAEL21c - www.israel21c.org)

More on animal conservation in the Middle East:
Animals Cope With Climate Change at the Dinner Table
Lebanon’s Lions, Tigers and Bears Take the Heat
Qatar’s Establishing A Gene Bank of Local Animals

English banking family scion David de Rothschild and his crew are already 8 days out to sea in the much heralded Plastiki sail boat made almost entirely out of recycled plastic material, including 1,200 gas filled plastic bottles. And David is sending followers Twitter updates from @DRexplore daily.

The specially designed catamaran was featured last week in a special half hour program on CNN,  in which De Rothschild and his crew sailed out of San Francisco Harbor following a very moving send-off that included environmental group representatives, local municipal authorities, reporters from various news media groups; and even a delegation of Pacific islanders in native costumes who blew on conch shells and recited special prayers to the sea gods to insure a safe voyage. The vessel plans to arrive in Sydney Australia in late April.

The six member Plastiki crew, which is led by David himself, includes Jo Royle, the only female crew member and the boat’s skipper.  Another crew member is none other than Olav Heyerdahl, grandson of Thor Heyerdahl who achieved fame in 1947 when he sailed his Konkiki balsa wood raft from Peru to French Polynesia.

Olav Heyerdhal and grandfather Thor

Olav Heyerdhal (pictured right) is an accomplished scuba diver and hopes to help the Plastiki crew relive the experiences that his grandfather Thor experienced more than 60 years ago.

Compared to the Kontiki, the Plaskiti has all the modern electronic gadgetry needed to document their voyage, as well as be in communication with the outside world. The electrical power needed for this equipment as well as for lighting and other needs, will come from batteries that are recharged by solar energy.

Fresh water is being supplied by a small desalination device on board.

But taking all the media hype aside, the real mission of the Plastiki is to reach and study a huge “plastic island” of accumulated plastic trash and other flotsam which is floating in the mid Pacific and is estimated to be the size of the American State of Texas.

This was mentioned in a previous  Green Prophet article in June, 2009, when the craft was supposed to set sail, but was delayed for several months due to weather and other logistical considerations. The voyage is meant to bring world attention to the problem of pollution and other environmental problems brought on by a world  population that is now only beginning to realize that the resulting global warming and climate change is being partially caused by over-use of fossil fuels and by a “throw away society” whose cast-offs of plastic bags, bottles, and other waste materials have created these “islands” of flotsam in all the world’s oceans; which not only are an eyesore, but are very dangerous to marine life.

Another crew member American Vern Moen is in charge of making the film of the voyage, The Plastiki Film, which will try to bring to light the condition of the Pacific Ocean, due to all the discarded plastic and other waste material now present in it. Another crew member, Max Jourdan, of mixed French and British linage, is involved in making a film of the voyage, on behalf of National Geographic.

The world’s seas and oceans, including the Mediterranean in particular, have become increasing polluted by oil spills, industrial and human wastes, and simply by garbage dumped into them by us, the world’s human inhabitants. This increasing problem was also brought to light during the search operation for the missing Air France Flight 447 in June, 2009.

De Rothschild conceived the idea of undertaking such a voyage back in 2006 when he became increasingly concerned about the plight of the world’s natural wonders, especially the oceans. His thoughts regarding the need to have better environmental use of plastic materials can be summed in his own words:

“We need to re-think our use of plastics so that it can contribute to solutions rather then compounding the problems. Together, this is the only way we can more forward and create the necessary solutions for our planet”

We wish the Plastiki and its brave crew success in the remainder of their voyage; which should help to make people realize everywhere that we all share a part in shaping this planet’s environment and ultimate destiny.

::CNN

Read more on Middle Eastern marine environmental issues:
Jordan and Israeli Scientists Cooperate to Study and Protect Gulf of Aqaba
Coastal Erosion Threatens Evolutionary Hot Spots in Gulf Region
Garbage Trucks Dump Straight into the Sea in Lebanon

At the recent CITES Agreement conference in Doha Qatar, a proposal to ban commercial fishing for the Atlantic bluefin tuna, a prized delicacy in Japan, was defeated. It happened during a meeting by representatives of the 175 countries that belong to this agreement which was originally enacted to save endangered animal species. The giant fish, which can grow to a length of 2.5 meters and weigh up to 350 kilograms, are one of the longest living ocean fish; living as long as 30 years – providing they don’t get caught. All too often they wind up in Tokyo sushi bars, and their future appears to not be very good, since the UN backed conference could not circumvent the opposition to a ban on the export of the fish.  Environmentalists worldwide are outraged. But we in the Middle East should care. Our region is one of the most important spawning grounds for this majestic fish.

Only the US, Norway and Kenya openly supported the export ban; while countries like Japan (naturally) and Canada opposed the ban – along with scores of poor countries which make part of their livelihoods off catching and selling bluefin tuna.

Why the Mediterranean factors in to the future of bluefin tuna is obvious when it was revealed in an article in Grist, one of the world’s most important environment news web sites (our Karin has contributed there before), is that the Gulf of Mexico and the Mediterranean Sea are the two main spawning grounds for this fish.

The bluefin  also grow slower and live much longer than other endangered fish species, including swordfish, which was once considered to be threatened with extinction. According to the Grist article, swordfish are actually making a comeback, as they reproduce in many locations and grow to adult size much quicker and the bluefins do.

Adverse environmental conditions, like man-made pollution and global warming have been blamed for the decimation of many fish species  in the world’s seas and oceans. But in the case of the bluefin, its greatest enemies are fisherman, many of whom come from poor countries and have little or no regard for regulations by organizations like the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which forbids the capture of bluefin tuna that weigh less than 30 kg, and set a quota of 13,500 tons  for the year 2010.

Tuna that’s okay to eat

The danger of extinction for bluefin tuna does not mean that people should never buy cans of tuna again in their local supermarket, however. There are many species of tuna in the world’s oceans, including:

Albacore

Yellowfin

Big eye

Skipjack tuna

Little tuny or bonito

What winds up as “Charlie the Tuna” (Starkist) or “Chicken of the Sea” can be all or any of the above; although white fleshed Albacore usually wind up being chosen over the dejected “Charlie” in those Starkist adds.

But even though the 2010 quota of 13,500 “allowable” metric tons is lower that 2009 limit of 20,000 metric tons, it doesn’t take much imagination to figure out that it won’t take long before these great fish may one day be gone from the world’s seas and oceans.  Sorry, Charlie!

Image via Wikipedia

More on endangered animal species from the Middle East region:
Persian Gulf “Mermaids” Face Man Made Environmental Threats
Coastal Erosion Threatens Marine Life in Gulf Region
Garbage and Sewage Threaten Marine Life in Hizbollah Controlled Lebanon

Marine pollution in Lebanon is becoming so severe these days that local fishermen are catching more garbage in their nets than fish. An article on thenews site Inter Press Service said that Lebanon’s 6,500 fishermen are having with the increasing problem of coastal and marine pollution being caused by large amounts of garbage and other forms of pollution finding its way into the sea. Political ambivalence is to blame.

Abdallah Mokad, one of these Lebanese trying to make his living from the sea, said sadly: “We are hauling in more garbage than fish these days. Much of the waste that gets entangled in our nets comes from the Costa Brava dumping ground, which leads out into the sea. This is illegal but waste truck owners enjoy the protection of politicians.’’

Political ambivalence, which prevents any strong action being taken by the government against those violating the laws that are on the books against dumping of garbage into the sea has resulted in the present situation, picked up by Green Prophet when we reported the large garbage mound off the coast of Sidon.  

Today, the Sidon garbage mound is now so large that ships in the vicinity can “smell it before you can see it.”

The IPS article notes that Lebanese fishermen used to bring in  daily catches of as much as 50 kg of fish such as Sultan Brahim, a local species of snapper, plus several kgs of shrimp.

Now, the catches are much smaller, with only a few kgs of fish and less than a kg of shrimp, among the shreds of plastic material and other garbage that gets caught in the nets. Besides garbage, oil spills, raw sewage, and various forms of industrial wastes is making this part of the Eastern Mediterranean increasingly devoid of fish and other marine life, including birds.

Lebanon’s sectarian governmental mixture, that is becoming increasingly influenced by both Syria and Hizbollah, doesn’t seem to have the power or desire to do much to clean up the country’s growing pollution problem.

Although lawmakers met last May in order to establish “environmental police, courts, a prosecutor’s office … and trained environmental prosecutors,” little has been done concerning these as the country now enters March, 2010.

Besides the pollution problems caused by human sewage and garbage, damage from oil spills, most particularly as a result of  Israeli air raids during the 34 day war in 2006, has resulted in substantial environmental damage from as much as 45,000 metric tons of oil seeping into the sea.

Damage to Lebanon caused by the Israel war with the Hezbollah in Summer, 2006. Image via obbino.

Another, much more recent oil spill occurred when the Panamanian ship Danny F II sank last December 19 in stormy waters about 12 miles off the coast of Tripoli.To make matters worse, the ship was carrying 10, 224 sheep and 17,932 head of cattle, whose carcasses are feared to have attracted sharks to the area, further unbalancing the normal marine life in the area.

Twenty-six crew members are also still unaccounted for and presumed to have become shark food, along with the livestock.

Ali Darwich, environmental and agricultural specialist and general secretary of the non-government environmental organization Green Line said there are 8 major dumping sites in Lebanon, with the one near Tyre, Saida, being the most notable.

“Some two million Lebanese people live along the sea shore and the household and industrial wastes they produce are spilling directly into the water. One has to keep in mind that only one treatment plant exists in Lebanon, and it is responsible only for removing large particles from the sewage system and not important pollutants, such as heavy metal”.

Israel, whose Mediterranean coastline is also becoming more and more polluted (especially in the Haifa Bay area), Syria above and Turkey above that, has no doubt already received a portion of Lebanon’s coastal pollution. The question is how much? And how can activists from all countries join together to stop this atrocity?

More articles on Lebanese pollution:
Sidon’s Garbage dump Creating Eyesore and “Smell sore” for Entire Region
Lebanon’s Beaches Become Trash Dumps as More Sewage Poured Into Sea
“Bird’s Eye View” Shows Raw Sewage off Lebanon’s Coast

Saudi Arabia’s fragile desert and coastal environments will now get “help from above,” thanks to an initiative by a group of Saudi Arabian and European partners (GAF AG and e-GEOS) who have completed a project to implement and provide satellite-based environmental information products and services to the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The project will involve satellite monitoring of all areas of the Kingdoms environmental structure “Land – Air – Coast – Marine” and is based on similar projects conducted in Europe in GMES for ”Global Monitoring for Environment and Security” programs. They’ll be watching for oil spills, and more. 

As we explored in the past, Saudi Arabia has a number of potentially serious environmental issues, including those involving damage inflicted to coral reefs and other marine life habitats.

Another issue involves loss of desert sand due to building demands by mega-construction projects in the UAE and other regional areas; and especially in dealing with environmental problems caused by 3+ million pilgrims to the annual Hajj pilgrimage.

Throughout the last decades the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has witnessed rapid development in its economy, industry and population. Environmental awareness is recently growing and becoming significant in all areas of daily life. By use of satellite observation the  PME will be better able to design and  undertake  a range of Earth observation based products and services for the Kingdom, including:

Nationwide image maps, land use/cover mapping and monitoring

Air quality monitoring and forecasting services – designed and developed by DLR

The demonstration of oil spill detection and monitoring in the Red Sea – designed and developed by e-GEOS, a satellite monitoring project created as a joint venture between Telespazio and the Italian Space Agency.

e-GEOS provides high quality satellite imaging of various parts of the world, including the Dubai island development projects, now said to be threatening the coastal environment of the entire Persian Gulf region, and the recent 8.3 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile.

GAF AG,   an e-GEOS company, is globally active and has an international reputation as a competent provider of project design, management and implementation services in the fields of geo-information, satellite remote sensing and spatial IT consultancy to private and public clients.

By being able to both map and monitor various environmental “hot spots” in and around Saudi Arabia, the PME will be better able to deal with these areas and find solutions to make them more environmentally friendly – including the problem of bussing so many pilgrims to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina during the Hajj.

e-GEOS website

Want more? Read Green Prophet’s articles on Saudi Arabia environmental issues:
Saudi Arabia to Replace Oil with Solar Energy for Desalination Plants
Saudi Arabia Seeks to Join International Renewable Energy Group IRENA
DOW Chemical and Saudi Arabia’s KAUST University Vow to Clean up Environment

Coastal waters are evolutionary hotspots, says Jerry Berne, a shoreline expert from the NGO Sustainable Shorelines in the US. Based in Charlotte, NC, USA, Berne is concerned about the toll construction and shoreline projects are having on the world’s marine ecosystems. Looking at the intensive construction projects ongoing in the Gulf region, such as Dubai’s The World, and over-pumping of aquifers by the Palestinian and Israeli authorities, Berne sees our current management of shorelines as a disaster. In an interview with Green Prophet, Berne points out the problems in the Middle East and gives alternative solutions, such as offshore ports powered by solar energy, to stop soil erosion and habitat loss.

1. Please tell us a little more about you and your interest in soil erosion.

I was an architect who, upon experiencing the rapid erosion of a favorite beach in the mid-1990’s, began to investigate its causes and possible mitigation options. The more I discovered the more concerned I became for the damage being done to our coastal resources by man’s activities.

I volunteered to work with North Carolina’s famed environmentalist and nature photographer Hugh Morton in his efforts to save the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in its powerful place by the sea.

Mr. Morton also owned Grandfather Mountain, a major natural tourist attraction and a UN Biosphere Reserve site. Mr. Morton advocated using an environmentally sound and sustainable method of coastal erosion mitigation, Holmberg Technologies, to protect the Lighthouse and to demonstrate this method’s suitability to preserve other coastal habitats.

This effort failed in a large part due to the influence of the US Army Corps of Engineers (major dredging advocates) as well as some who strongly supported abandoning our coastal resources to the sea. Given the evidence of man’s impact on these, this was/is an irrational and un-environmentally sound position.

From my architectural education, I could readily see the problem of overdevelopment in habitat loss and pollution. What was not so obvious was what was mostly hidden from us underwater: the navigational channels, offshore aggregate mining, erosion “control” and navigational structures. These with changes to our river systems –channelization, dams, etc.– also impacted our coastlines ability to “heal” itself from the natural erosion caused by storms and incremental sea level rise.

As my perspective is mainly from “on the beach”, my answers on soil erosion are going to embrace the often ignored erosion crisis on our shorelines. To encourage more attention to this crisis, I work with other organizations with similar goals as the UK’s FOE/MARINET group (http://marinet.org.uk/) and have participated in research programs including the EU’s Soil Protection Issue Group’s contribution to its Environmental Technologies Action Plan.

2. What are some of the root causes of soil erosion and why is this a concern in the Gulf Region?

The Gulf region shares this problem with any other area with coastlines. It also has been very active in dredging for both navigation and land reclamation (see Answer 5). As such, its shorelines are experiencing much habitat loss both on and offshore. This activity can also impact fresh water resources (see Answer 3), a critically scarce Gulf resource.

While many do not necessarily consider coastal erosion when thinking of the phrase “soil erosion”, it is imperative that we began to do this. Not only are we losing expensive real estate and tourism economics, we are losing habitat.

Our coastal habitats –deltas, estuaries, wetlands, reefs — are also our sealife nurseries from which most of our commercial fishing resources are derived. We must consider the commercial aspects of our shorelines as this seems to be the major concern of those with the power to actually implement policies and practices to mitigate manmade coastal erosion.

Perhaps the greatest contributor to this erosion is dredging. In our efforts to facilitate commercial –even recreational– navigation, we have changed nature and not adapted our vessels to it. Altering coastal waterways, inlets and bays also alters current and wave patterns. These are often accelerated and redirected creating what amounts to hydraulic mining along our coastal landforms scouring these away. Much of the sediment from these is flumed far offshore and out of the littoral systems.

To “mitigate” this loss, the same engineering firms and marine construction companies who dredged these initially are often hired to replace the lost shoreline with sand from these excavations or mined from the offshore. Either way, this process actually accelerates erosion such that beach “nourishment” is, in truth, a starvation diet. Sand fill derived from navigational dredging of a channel or inlet can be tainted with pollutants, it changes currents and flumes much of the naturally replenishing sediments far offshore and out of the littoral systems. If the fill is mined (stripped-mined) from offshore, naturally storm energy damping shoals are removed allowing more energy to strike the shoreline creating more ecological and economic damage. Both processes can deepen the nearshore

3. What kinds of effects can we expect to see in the marine and land environment if too much erosion takes place?

The most obvious the loss of the dry beach and dunes often with the accompaniment of manmade structures. What we do not see is the undersea side of this with changes to shoal and reef fish habitats. Eroding shorelines typically mean more sedimentation in the form of silts and fines. These can smother seabed and reef habitats.

The changes in salinity as land barriers erode effect wetlands and estuaries by altering critical sealife chemical balances. This also allows the loss of coastal fresh water aquifers to salt water infiltration effecting plants and, of course, human potable water sources. Salinization becomes even more problematic as climate change lessened rainfall reduces river flows and groundwater recharge. We must consider that the shallow deltas and inlets which once constrained the outward flow of fresh water and held the salt sea at bay are now hydraulic super highways thanks to dredging.

One of the most symbolic environmental concerns to many are sea turtle losses and the Gulf is home to the endangered green turtle. These are being lost to fishing operations, native food traditions and the ingestion of solid and chemical pollutants. Equally critical is the loss of habitat to development, erosion and the indiscriminate use of beach “nourishment” projects to “restore” beaches which are nesting grounds.

The fill sand may provide a temporary dry beach for nesting, but the fill is often incompatible to the original beach’s naturally acquired sand and alters the survival of the baby turtles through changes in sand temperature, compaction and irregular scarping.

4. How could overbuilding and climate change exacerbate soil erosion?

Overbuilding or over-development can impact erosion by destroying parts of our natural shorelines’ abilities to protect itself. The loss of sand dunes, the filling of wetlands and traditionally engineered shore “protection” structures to “protect” this development all contribute to the further loss of shoreline.

One of the most insidious methods to protect this development is the heavy promotion of beach “nourishment” as a rational method. Both navigational dredging and offshore aggregate mining weaken our natural shoreline defenses (beaches, shoals, reefs, etc.) by removing naturally replenishing sediments to deep water and by actually deepening the nearshore allowing more wave energy to strike the shoreline. We must remember that we only see the loss of dry beach, not the massive amount of near and off shore that is removed before this occurs.

Climate change is anticipated to cause rapid (in geologic terms) sea level rise and increased storm intensities. The manmade changes to our coastlines have severely weakened our natural coastal defenses’ ability to mitigate and slow the impacts of climate changes –itself the major manmade change encompassing the entire earth.

5. What Middle East countries are at risk?

The loss of coastal barrier lands to erosion and the dredging of deep channels far inland allows salt water to infiltrate any fresh ground water and aquifers contiguous to these. This is exacerbated by over-pumping these sources for potable water and agricultural as is happening in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Salt water is also effecting agricultural lands in the critical Nile River delta. This is due to both the loss of fresh, unpolluted water and its rapid erosion. This erosion is due in part to the loss of sediment now trapped behind the Aswan Dam. Channel dredging and sea level rise accelerate this loss.

Again, dredging is a major component of our coastal erosion crisis whether is for navigation or seabed strip-mining for construction fill or aggregates. Even so, MENAFN has several articles on recent efforts to expand dredging and coastal construction in the Mideast.

These include $629 million to construct four artificial islands off Abu Dhabi; Saudi Arabia welcoming its new dredging ship, the largest of its kind in the world, for coastal construction; plans for a new Suez Canal entrance channel; Haifa harbor mining for construction aggregates; $200 million for port dredging/construction at Sohar, Oman; etc.

There has even been a scheme proposed to expand Israel/Palestinian lands by filling in the eastern Mediterranean with dredged fill from it!

All of this puts sealife habitats at risk such as the Gulf’s reefs. A new study on the effects of climate change and coral reefs is just being released by the UK’s University of Exeter. While it states that reefs in marine reserves can recover from global warming, it also states that these also protect the reefs from “potentially-damaging human activity, like dredging and fishing.”

Even more interestingly, this study was funded by the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation (whose website video show’s its founder exploring a reef). Astonishingly, we are already aware of the severe stress on Gulf reefs due to sedimentation from erosion or fines and silts from the dredging there. We should also be aware that that reefs were just declared “evolutionary hot spots” in a new research report from Germany’s Humboldt University.

6. What measures can be done to stop this from happening.

We must become more aware of our impact on coastal environments. Just as we once thought the sea too vast for us to harm with our discards and pollutants, we now know our actions can effect the entire planet. We would not accept environmentally disastrous strip-mining or canyon digging on our lands; we must not accept it in our waters. Unfortunately, we still accept paving over our coastal resources.

To reduce the need for navigational dredging and structures, we need a new vision for our commercial shipping industry which is, in many ways, “back to the future”. While deeply dug navigational channels may extend inland several kilometers, these can extend seaward tens of kilometers to reach deep water.

By engineering new, technologically advanced offshore ports, we could remove the major manmade erosion cause from our coastlines. Current/wave, wind and solar energy might power these.

The super-deep draft vessels of today and even larger ones of tomorrow could ply the oceans between these drill-platform style island ports where each’s cargo could be handled robotically and even have it security checked.

This cargo could be transferred to coastal vessels (as once was done) which are designed for our coastal waterways rather than re-engineering our waterways for massive ships. This could help our coastlines to heal naturally as well as create more ports of entry spreading coastal economies –and jobs– all along our coastlines. This would also reduce port pollution and potentially reduce land transportation costs and pollution.

To help with this coastal healing, we must adopt proven erosion mitigation technology. One of its most successful implementations of these is in the Middle East. In 1999/2000, Holmberg Technologies installed one of its Undercurrent Stabilizers Systems at Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia for Aramco.

The site was one where dredging and all other engineered methods, including a massive boulder/concrete seawall, had failed to stop the erosion threatening a housing complex. This erosion was caused by the oil loading terminal east of the site which created a sand starved area in the shadow of its long structures.

After seeing its housing complex again threatened, the Aramco housing authority overruled its engineers and employed Holmberg’s passive, permanent method to halt the erosion. Within weeks of its completion, the beach had expanded by 20 meters and elevated by 2 covering sections of the remaining seawall. The shoreline continues to expand.

This demonstration is important in that it shows that we can mitigate much of our current self-inflicted shore wounds with an existing technology –shown to be environmentally sound and sustainable– even in areas thought to be sand starved. As importantly, it is considerably less expensive to the environment and government economies than the beach nourishment and traditionally engineered projects sold by engineering firms and international dredging companies. Holmberg’s work is shown to shallow the nearshore while expanding the dry beach and backshore dunes. It also is shown to elevate the shoreline –an important attribute as sea levels rise.

There are a myriad of other methods which are proposed or which have been attempted, though not necessarilly successfully. These include beach dewatering (which might be problematic to coastal aquifers), artificial offshore reefs/breakwaters, semi-permeable netting to catch sand, etc. There is even one method which is a biochemical designed to neutralize pollutants which may cause sand to flow more freely thus allow beaches to erode faster. To date, however, Holmberg remains the only method with any long-term, credible evidence of success including university research, professional monitoring reports and over 30 years of empirical evidence.

In the 1960’s, a dam project on the Amazon River threaten to drown a huge population of indigenous animals as the water rose behind the dam. Biologists called for help to save those trapped with the alarming message, “Time is short and the water rises.” Now the water rises for all of us.

Jerry Berne
Sustainable Shorelines, Inc. (www.sustainableshorelines.org)
Charlotte, NC, USA

Sustainable Shorelines is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to documenting current environmental events on our shorelines, identifying and seeking to change those coastal policies and practices which are harmful and advocating protecting our coastal habitats and the ecosystems these support with methods proven to be environmentally sound and sustainable.

Getting close to his subject: marine biologist Prof. Zvy Dubinsky hopes to understand the changes global warming will cause to the world’s delicate coral reefs. A new EU grant will give the corals a chance.

Israeli marine biologist Zvy Dubinksy is worried. Coral reefs all over the world – from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia to the Red Sea in Israel – are dying, and global warming is the culprit.

Now the professor from Bar Ilan University in Israel hopes to do something about it. He and his team of researchers from the Faculty of Life Sciences have just been awarded a prestigious $4 million grant from the European Research Council to study the effects of global warming on corals in the Mediterranean and Red Seas in the hope that they can come up with data that will help scientists bio-engineer remedies to global warming in advance.

It’s a significant grant. The European Union group received over 1,500 applications for the money, but chose Dubinksy, a renowned coral researcher, because of the vital importance of his research, which examines a number of fundamental questions about the future of marine ecosystems.

Coral reefs are some of the most delicate of marine life. They offer rich and complex eco-systems, comparable to tropical jungles. Aside from providing a home and habitat to many important fish species, the corals also have a unique symbiotic relationship with tiny algae that live within the coral cells. These algae provide the coral with most of the energy needed for life processes, such as growth and reproduction.

Coral reefs are dying

In stable water conditions the reefs thrive, but rising sea temperatures, increasing pollution and water acidity have deeply stressed the corals causing them to lose the algae. The result is bleaching – where corals whiten and die. Today bleaching events have been hitting reefs throughout the Indian and Pacific Oceans, with increasing frequency, killing corals and decimating entire reefs.

“The increase of CO2 in the atmosphere results in its increased dissolution in the oceans causing water acidification. The more acidic it becomes, the more difficult it becomes for calcifying organisms like corals, shellfish and crustaceans to deposit their calcium carbonate skeletons,” Dubinsky tells ISRAEL21c.

“Corals are endangered by global warming, but that’s not all,” he adds. “There are increased UV rates from the depletion of ozone, and in many places around the world, corals are used as building material where there are no other stones. Fisheries also cause problems as do pet shops and aquaria. They are destroying whole reefs to catch one expensive fish. The whole outlook is not good.”

Dubinsky, who founded the lab at Bar Ilan University, plans to study the effects of climate change on corals over the next five years, using state-of-the-art tools.

With the help of former student, Dr. Oren Levy, Dubinsky and his team will employ a special lab fitted with marine aquaria, built with part of the grant. There they will expose the non-reef producing corals from the Mediterranean and the reef-producing species from the Red Sea to changes that coral reefs are expected to experience over the next 90 years, given various global warming scenarios.

Identifying resistant species

After investigating metabolism rates, reproductive patterns, and growth — all monitors for animal fecundity, the coral skeletons will be brought to the University of Bologna in Italy where the mechanical and structural properties of coral will be studied.

The goal of the project is to help scientists understand how coral species will react to global warming, in an effort to help them bio-engineer remedies in advance, such as developing certain species resistant to change.

“By acting synergistically with ocean acidification, it may be possible to identify the most endangered coral reefs, and coral species facing extinction,” explains Dubinsky. “To save coral reefs… resilient, warmth-tolerant species, genotypes that are more resistant and hearty, will be cultured and placed in damaged sites. Meanwhile, the more sensitive species will be protected in sanctuaries and gene banks,” says the scientist who is also an accomplished diver and art photographer.

Dubinsky, who was born in Spain in 1934 and immigrated to Israel nine years later, first became interested in corals by accident. The scientist, who speaks seven languages including German, French, Arabic, and Spanish, first encountered corals while teaching students.

Fascinated by the puzzles corals pose

“I was fascinated by the puzzles they pose apart from their diversity and beauty,” admits Dubinsky, who is married and has one son and four grandchildren. “They succeed to monopolize very special environments. Growing in ‘blue deserts,’ you find corals in regions in the tropical oceans poor in nutrients.

Dubinsky first graduated from school with a college teacher’s training certificate, and was a member of a kibbutz. He did his post-doctoral work at Queens College in New York, has been on sabbaticals around the world including the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Department of Energy, Tokyo University in Japan and at the Rockefeller Institute in New York.

For his first degree he studied botany and zoology and in subsequent degrees investigated algae in the Sea of Galilee. With over 200 scientific papers published under his name, among them 68 in top journals, Dubinsky’s contributions, such as understanding how phytoplankton use light energy, have won him acclaim in his field. Over the last 10 years, he has won 12 major international and national grants.

Dubinsky admits that global warming scares him. “Global warming worries me very much on the political level because of business interests and politicians who try to deny the very fact, and try to continue business as usual along with their total dependence on fossil fuels,” he explains.

“Besides the loss of coral reefs, homes of incredible yet undocumented biodiversity, reefs also protect shorelines and provide livelihood to coastal communities whose economies are based on tourism, fisheries and marine culture,” he concludes.

(This story was reprinted from ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org)

Rising sea level, one of many climate change-related phenomena expected to occur in the coming years, is a major environmental concern for many Middle Eastern countries where coastlines are long and water resources are scarce.

However, a recent study headed by Dr Dorit Sivan, Head of the Department of Maritime Civilizations at the University of Haifa, shows that showed that sea level rise (and fall) is nothing new “under the sun” here in Israel.  According to the study, the sea level in Israel has been rising and falling over the past 2,500 years, with a one-meter difference between the highest and lowest levels, most of the time below the present-day level.

“Rises and falls in sea level over relatively short periods do not testify to a long-term trend. It is early yet to conclude from the short-term increases in sea level that this is a set course that will not take a change in direction,” explained Dr. Sivan.

Dr. Sivan and research assistant Ayelet Toker set out to examine Israel’s sea level over the past 2,500 years, based on data deduced from many coastal archaeological findings.  The pair examined Crusader-era excavations from the Antiquities Authority in Acre, which revealed that the sea level during the Crusader period – just 800 years ago – was some 50-90 centimeters lower than the present sea level.  An analysis of other archaeological findings from the same period at Caesarea and Atlit reinforced this conclusion.

When additional sites were examined from periods before and after the Crusader period, Dr. Sivan and Ms. Toker discovered there have been significant fluctuations in sea level: During the Hellenistic period, the sea level was about 1.6 meters lower than its present level; during the Roman era the level was almost similar to today’s; the level began to drop again during the ancient Muslim period, and continued dropping to reach the same level as it was during the Crusader period, but within about 500 years it rose again, and reached some 25 centimeters lower than today’s level at the beginning of the 18^th century.

“Over the past century, we have witnessed the sea level in Israel fluctuating with almost 19 centimeters between the highest and lowest levels,” said Dr. Sivan.  “Over the past 50 years Israel’s mean sea level rise is 5.5 centimeters, but there have also been periods when it rose by 10 centimeters over 10 years. That said, even acute ups and downs over short periods do not testify to long-term trends. An observation of the sea levels over hundreds and thousands of years shows that what seems a phenomenon today is as a matter of fact ‘nothing new under the sun.’ ”

However, although rising sea level may not be new, it may still be incredibly destructive.  Impacts like flooding, underground water salinization, flooded effluents, and acceleratead coastal damage are all associated with sea level rise.  Israel and other nearby Mediterranean countries should therefore make every effort to prepare for and adapt to possible damage in the coming years.

:: University of Haifa

Photo Credit:  Amir Yurman, University of Haifa

More stories on sea level rise:
12 Million Egyptians to be Affected by Climate Change
The Conflicted Middle East to Worsen As Global Warming Causes Rising Sea Levels
Mega Urban Developments In Gulf Region A Natural Disaster Waiting to Happen