FUJAIRAH // An oil spill on Fujairah’s coastline led to a ban on people swimming at several hotels.
The two kilometre-long spill, which was first spotted off the coast of the Al Aqah area of Dibba on Monday, forced beach closures but did not immediately appear to affect wildlife.
“The oil patches were spotted on Monday morning at about 9am and they were covering the whole beach, so I decided to close the beach and raise the red flag to prevent anyone from swimming,” said Ashraf Helmy, area general manager of the Miramar hotel.
“We contacted the authorities and they sent a team to clean the shores and, with the help of our team, they managed to remove the oily sand and clear the beach by today [Tuesday].
“We used to see oil slicks quite often in the past, about eight years ago.
“At the time we stopped all the water activities for the safety of the guests and many guests were annoyed and filed complaints to us.”
About 700 guests at the Miramar were affected by the swimming ban until it was lifted on Tuesday morning.
“It’s something that rarely happens nowadays and it’s cleared now, but we hope that it won’t affect the tourism in the area as we work hard on promoting it,” Mr Helmy said.
“Most probably it was caused by inaccurate cleaning of oil tanks on ships, which should be monitored and banned because such acts could harm marine life and water.”
Rotana Al Aqah resort beach was also closed and will stay closed until Wednesday.
“We closed the beach on Monday after we noticed the oil slick. We directly started the clean-up process with the municipality’s help,” said Murad Al Khory, the area general manager.
“We offered alternative activities for our guests and did everything we could to compensate them.”
Tourists who visit Fujairah to enjoy its clear waters, unique landscape and moderate weather were disappointed by the beach ban.
“This is our third visit to Al Aqah and we come here to enjoy the water but, unfortunately, this time our vacation was interrupted by this phenomena,” said Karl Seubart, from Germany.
The 32-year-old came from Abu Dhabi with his friends on Monday and was planning to stay until Thursday.
“But we are checking out today. We changed our plans due to the current conditions and will go to another hotel in RAK [Ras Al Khaimah]. It won’t be the same in RAK but maybe we can come back later this year.”
While beachgoers were affected, divers and fishermen were not because the oil spill was near the shore and they were going farther out to sea.
“Fishing wasn’t disrupted and no complaints were received from fishermen over the past two days. There were no reports of any oil in their fishing nets,” said Sulaiman Al Khuddam, head of Dibba Fishermen Association.
Dibba Municipality’s environmental protection department was at Al Aqah beach monitoring the spill and helping with the clean-up.
“We acted directly after receiving reports about oil spills seen near the shores. Everything should be cleared by today [Tuesday]. We are removing the oil from the sand but the reason [for the spill] is still unclear,” said a member of the team.
rhaza@thenational.ae
Common OCD symptoms and how they manifest
Checking: the obsession or thoughts focus on some harm coming from things not being as they should, which usually centre around the theme of safety. For example, the obsession is “the building will burn down”, therefore the compulsion is checking that the oven is switched off.
Contamination: the obsession is focused on the presence of germs, dirt or harmful bacteria and how this will impact the person and/or their loved ones. For example, the obsession is “the floor is dirty; me and my family will get sick and die”, the compulsion is repetitive cleaning.
Orderliness: the obsession is a fear of sitting with uncomfortable feelings, or to prevent harm coming to oneself or others. Objectively there appears to be no logical link between the obsession and compulsion. For example,” I won’t feel right if the jars aren’t lined up” or “harm will come to my family if I don’t line up all the jars”, so the compulsion is therefore lining up the jars.
Intrusive thoughts: the intrusive thought is usually highly distressing and repetitive. Common examples may include thoughts of perpetrating violence towards others, harming others, or questions over one’s character or deeds, usually in conflict with the person’s true values. An example would be: “I think I might hurt my family”, which in turn leads to the compulsion of avoiding social gatherings.
Hoarding: the intrusive thought is the overvaluing of objects or possessions, while the compulsion is stashing or hoarding these items and refusing to let them go. For example, “this newspaper may come in useful one day”, therefore, the compulsion is hoarding newspapers instead of discarding them the next day.
Source: Dr Robert Chandler, clinical psychologist at Lighthouse Arabia
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Know your Camel lingo
The bairaq is a competition for the best herd of 50 camels, named for the banner its winner takes home
Namoos - a word of congratulations reserved for falconry competitions, camel races and camel pageants. It best translates as 'the pride of victory' - and for competitors, it is priceless
Asayel camels - sleek, short-haired hound-like racers
Majahim - chocolate-brown camels that can grow to weigh two tonnes. They were only valued for milk until camel pageantry took off in the 1990s
Millions Street - the thoroughfare where camels are led and where white 4x4s throng throughout the festival
