It is no coincidence that most of the UAE’s population live along the coast. The sea has always sustained life in this region. In the past, fish provided sustenance, pearls generated wealth and boats came and went, laden with items to trade. While relatively few people now earn their living directly from the Gulf waters, we all still benefit from our proximity to them.
Desalination provides much of our drinking water and we feast on an extensive array of seafood. Sailing and other watersports are increasingly popular, while cruise ships bring a steadily increasing flow of big-spending tourists to our ports. Despite these palpable connections, we tend to take this great resource for granted. We have overfished to the point where some species – such as hammour – are threatened, and pockets of our coastal waterways have become polluted.
It's an issue touched on this week at a Ramadan majlis hosted by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. Dr Robert Ballard, the founder of the Ocean Exploration Trust and the man who discovered the resting place of the RMS Titanic, spoke about our role as custodians of the aquatic environment. He said that we must become "farmers and herders" of the sea rather than hunters, as we have been in the past. Just as a farmer on land puts aside grain to replant and ensure another harvest, we must stop taking from the sea without replenishing it.
The good news is that this kind of stewardship is already happening. As The National also reported, people across the country are contributing to an interactive map of dolphin sightings, an important step in their conservation. And the Save the Dugong campaign has gone international, thanks to Dh21.3 million in funding from the Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund.
However, there is more to do. Endangered species remain on our menus, sharks are killed merely to turn their fins into soup, and pollution is an ever-present issue. We must all look beyond the azure surface waters and appreciate that the bounty of the sea will not be limitless unless we manage it carefully.
