ABU DHABI // A 50-foot fishing dhow that sunk in the harbour at Mina Zayed more than five months ago has still not been moved.
Parts of the vessel were still sticking up on Wednesday even though it had sunk further into the sea. Its bow section is still a foot above water. The dhow is close to the Abu Dhabi Fishermen Cooperative Society office, which said last month said it was unaware of the craft. The Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (Ead) said rotting debris from the dhow was a cause for concern to marine life and the environment, but it did not fall under the authority’s jurisdiction.
“Ead is not in charge of port or waterway management,” said Ayesha Al Blooshi, terrestrial and marine biodiversity director at the authority. “Ead is only in charge of fisheries management, that is, issuing commercial and recreational fishing licences, and is also on the fisheries committee with the Ministry of Environment and Water to approve commercial fishing boat licences.”
“Ead is, of course, concerned with the environmental impacts of this incident and has raised the issue for action.”
Dr John Burt, associate professor of biology at New York University Abu Dhabi and head of the Marine Biology Laboratory, said he was concerned that thousands of gallons of pollutants had seeped into the water, where the wreckage had been left unattended.
“Aside from the pollutants and potential environmental damage, the boat, of course, serves as a navigational hazard for other boaters in the area,” Dr Burt said. “Given that the dhow was not intentionally sunk, it is likely that the engine, bilge and other parts of the ship still contained pollutants when the boat went down. In particular, recently sunken vessels will often leak fuel and oil for some time. If the hull is breached, it’s likely that this will disperse to the surrounding area. Given the size of these dhows, a boat like this was probably carrying in the order of several hundred to 1,000 gallons of fuel, so this is not a trivial amount.”
As oil floats, the environmental impact would be limited to the tidal shorelines in the surrounding areas, including beaches, mudflats, seawalls or mangrove stands, Dr Burt said.
S Maggan, 45, a fisherman of 15 years, said: “There are many old boats moored here for years that need to be removed. It’s been more than five months, but nobody has removed the debris.”
He said one of the problems was that instead of having old, decaying boats removed, many owners just removed the valuables and left the dhows to rot.
The Ministry of Environment and Water did not respond to The National's questions sent to them two weeks ago.
anwar@thenational.ae