Five sites in the UAE were recognised for their rich and unique environmental biodiversity during a regional meeting hosted by the UAE Government recently.

The recently concluded regional workshop on Ecologically or Biologically Significant Marine Areas (EBSA) in the north-western Indian Ocean and Gulf identified Abu Dhabi's southwest waters and Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve, Dubai's Jebel Ali, and Sharjah's Sir Bu Na'air Island and Khor Kalba for their marine ecology.

The sites were evaluated based on the criteria established at the ninth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which included biological uniqueness or rarity, with special emphasis on the stages and phases of local species' life cycle.

Ministry of Environment and Water is highlighting the significance of conserving the open oceans and high seas for the survival of all marine species. Ministry has  efficiently and effectively protected the local species, especially the endangered ones, and their numbers are steadily thriving. But still more work needs to be done to save the ecological system from further degradation.

Here's a low-down on the five sites:

Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve

This area in Abu Dhabi is especially important to migratory and endangered species. It also supports the second-largest population of dugongs in the world after Australia. It provides crucial nurseries and spawning grounds for a wide variety of fish species, and serves as a foraging habitat for endangered hawksbill turtles and green turtles. Bu Tinah is a core area of the Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve — the first marine biosphere reserve in the UAE.

Bu Tinah is a tiny archipelago amid extensive coral formations and seagrass beds some 25 km south of Zirku and 35 north of Marawah in the United Arab Emirates.  Found in the waters of Abu Dhabi, it is protected as a private nature reserve. Bu Tinah Island, rich in biodiversity, lies within the Marawah Marine Biosphere Reserve with a territory of more than 4,000 km2. The biosphere reserve is the region's first and largest UNESCO-designated marine biosphere reserve. It has been a recognized UNESCO site since 2001. Closed to visitors, fishing and the collection of turtle eggs are prohibited on Bu Tinah Island the ban being enforced by patrols.

Bu Tinah is actually a cluster of islands and shoals, joined or almost so at low water, with nowhere greater than two or three metres above sea level. The main island has a sheltered lagoon opening to the south with the low energy environment permitting stands of mature mangrove to flourish. Even birds like the Socotra Cormorant are found here. There are also healthy coral reef habitats with as many as 16 species of coral recorded in the area. The reefs survive in conditions that would kill coral species in other parts of the world. The waters of the Persian Gulf are among the most saline in the world, as well as among the warmest. Corals live in water that is between 23? and 28? but in the UAE water temperatures go as high as 35? in summer.

Bu Tinah's thriving habitat is a unique living laboratory, with key significance for climate change research. This distinctive natural habitat with its shallow waters, seagrass beds and tall mangroves, set amid extensive coral reefs, hosts rare and globally endangered marine life. Seabirds such as the flamingo and the osprey, diverse species of dolphins, and the rare hawksbill turtle are found in Bu Tinah. The island's waters are also home to the planet's second-largest population of dugong, a large marine mammal that is globally threatened. Some 600 out of the estimated 3,000 dugongs in the country live in the waters around Bu Tinah and the creatures are listed as a species vulnerable to extinction by the IUCN. This precious natural resource is part of the largest protected area in Abu Dhabi. It's significant coral community and the health of its habitats and species despite its high temperature and salinity levels make the island of keen scientific interest.

Bu Tinah Island is one of the 28 official finalists for the "New 7 Wonders of  Nature".

Abu Dhabi's southwest waters

These are home to mangroves, seagrass beds, coral reefs, algal mats and sabkhas. They support an important spectrum of marine life including seabirds and migratory waders, a large population of endangered hawksbill turtles, and dugongs.

Jebel Ali

This area in Dubai is where the endangered hawksbill sea turtle nests. Dolphins are also frequent visitors here, particularly Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins.

Sir Bu Na'air Island

It is an island in the Persian Gulf. Lying 65 kilometres (40 mi) off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, roughly 80 kilometres (50 mi) north of Abu Dhabi city, and 103 kilometres (64 mi) west of Dubai, it belongs to the Emirate of Sharjah.

Sir Abu Nu'ayr is almost perfectly round with a diameter of four kilometers, and a one kilometer long extension at its southeast end, making the shape of the whole island appear as a drop.

Sir Abu Nu'ayr is a salt-piercement structure formed by the movement of Cambrian (Hormuz) salt. Salt deposited of Cambrian age has moved progressively upward, puncturing through the younger overlying strata to create a salt dome structure. Surface expressions are composed of evaporites rocks, plus igneous rocks and quartzitic sandstone.

Sharjah has a small harbor and an airfield (ICAO: OMSN) both located at the island's southeast end.

Crescent Petroleum is the concession holder of the Sir Abu Nu'ayr area.The acreage is flanked to the NNE by Dubai's Fateh Oil Field complex, to the north by the Sirri Island oil field of Iran and to the west by the prolific oil and gas fields of Abu Dhabi.

The island, an environmentally protected area under the Sharjah Environment and Protected Areas Authority (EPAA), has been registered on the list of wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention, and was in 2012 listed as a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This protected area off Sharjah is home to more than 300 hawksbill turtle nests every year, the largest nesting population in the UAE. It also serves as a breeding ground for sea birds.

Khor Kalba

This area is home to endemic species of birds as well as crabs, molluscs and reptiles.

These biologically unique sites support local species and migratory species

Source : Gulf News