Red tide turns into regional issue

Algal bloom spreads from UAE up to Muscat and on to Iran, affecting 1,000km of coastline

Parrot fish and sergeant major fish such as these at Snoopy Island in Dibba, have been among the casualities of the red tide.

Experts will gather in Kuwait this month to urgently discuss the algal bloom that has plagued the UAE east coast, causing widespread destruction to fish and threatening the marine tourism industry. The algae, blooms of which are commonly known as "red tide", had spread from the UAE up to Muscat in Oman and on to Iran, and scientists are racing to find ways to stop its spread before the ocean warms in spring and summer, providing ideal conditions for the bloom to return in full force. The problem is much worse than experts in the UAE had estimated, having affected more than 1,000km of coastline in the region, and experts say it has destroyed thousands of tonnes of fish and marine mammals. The three-day Kuwait meeting, starting on Jan 26, has been organised by the Kuwait-based Regional Organisation for the Protection of the Marine Environment (Ropme). "Re-blooming is a major problem. We need continuous monitoring," said Dr Hassan Mohammadi, the Ropme co-ordinator, during Offshore Arabia, a three-day oil and gas conference and exhibition held in Dubai that ends today. Dr Faiza al Yamani, a senior scientist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, said: "It is going to be a recurring phenomenon. Somebody has to study the ecology and taxonomy. We have to focus on what caused this bloom." Ropme is a regional framework for co-operation between the eight coastal States of the region, which was created with the aid of the UN Environment Programme. The bloom of the microorganism Cochlodinium polykrikoides put the fishing and diving industries in peril, as well as hampering a water desalination plant on the east coast. Under some conditions it starts to multiply so rapidly that the water takes on an intense brown-red colour. In some of the affected areas, concentrations of between nine million to 27 million individual microorganisms per litre were recorded, Dr Mohammadi said. Cochlodinium polykrikoides is not new to the region's waters. A study by Ropme in 2006 identified it as one of 337 species of phytoplankton living in the Gulf's waters but back then it was in small concentrations and there were no indications it would form a bloom. Dr Mohammadi thinks human activity has created favourable conditions for the bloom. Nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen are present in raw or partially treated sewage, or could be introduced through the aquaculture farms along the coastline. Building resorts and expanding ports can also contribute, he said. "Coastal developments are there, adding to the nutrition." Cochlodinium polykrikoides is not toxic to people and cannot infect the water from desalination plants. But people should avoid eating shellfish from the area as they accumulate the algae's toxins and can be extremely dangerous. The algae's effect on fish is lethal. When it blooms, it generates oxygen radicals that damage their gills, leading to suffocation. Scores of dead fish have been washing ashore since September last year. In December moray eels, parrot fish and sergeant majors died in large numbers. Other tropical fish were alive, but barely. Scores of trunk fish, curiously shaped bottom-dwelling creatures, have been seen swimming right up to the surface, struggling for a breath of air. Late last year divers were also noticing signs of coral bleaching, the first sign that corals might be dying because of the bloom. Dr Mohammadi said the algae was sturdy. "It forms cysts which are very resistant to temperature, climate and salinity? they lie at the bottom of the sea," he said. Those cysts can develop into mature algae when conditions are more suitable. The scope of the problem calls for greater regional co-operation than ever before, Dr Mohammadi and Dr al-Yamani said. Ropme has extensive satellite monitoring with updates every eight hours, said Dr Mohammadi. Images showing an unusual concentration of organisms in the water were first recorded by the organisation in late August, but it was not until several months later that samples from the UAE reached Ropme. "Any unusual phenomena ? we immediately inform the member states," he said. "What we expect from countries in the region is feedback, which is very, very slow." Dr Mohammadi said when warned, a member state should send a team to prepare a field report to help Ropme with its investigations. He said Ropme had a document detailing the steps needed to be taken in such circumstances. But Dr Mohammadi said there had been very little feedback from the UAE: "They look for disaster, then they act." Dr al Yamani agreed. "It was late when Ropme was notified," she said. "This is the problem; each country works alone." But Dr Ibrahim al Jamali, the director of the Marine Resource Research Centre in Umm al Qaiwain, said the UAE response was not delayed. "We went and checked everything at the end of August," Dr al Jamali said. "We heard from fishermen and we took samples." The microorganism was identified in October with further tests confirming Ropme's later findings, he said. Meanwhile the east coast waters seem to be clearing slowly. "There is definitely an improvement," said Brian Surprenaut, a diving instructor with Nomad Ocean Adventures, which is based in Dibba. "It is less thick. It is clearing out but it might be that the currents are just shifting it." [e-mail]