rich in more than oil – … but what if the greens don’t come back?
This news has been read 4926 times!
|
In years and years we researchers were close to them. Day after day, month after month. And how could one not, when meeting creatures fascinating enough to have met with the dinosaurs and complex enough to call two elements their home: sandy beaches and sea. Travelers of the seas and ambassadors of the oceans, sea turtles are no longer gracing the Arabian Gulf in the numbers they used to, and populations have dwindled down to a very limited number of individuals, especially in Kuwait. Nevertheless, against all odds and rules of nature, and despite wars, fires, pollution, climate change, extreme temperatures in both summer and winter, sea turtles keep coming every year to its sandy southern beaches to nest and throughout its waters to feed. Unlike most other Gulf countries, where usually the hawksbill turtle nests, in Kuwait there are also nesting green turtles. Or were. Until last year, when not a single nest was observed on Qaru island, their last nesting area which has not yet been reclaimed by human activities. |
For us environmentalists and conservationists, it was a sad season. With only limited population numbers, it was a bet whether Kuwait’s green turtles would make it as a population from one nesting season to another. The hawksbills, more resilient and more numerous, presented some more safety in numbers, but the big, vegetarian greens, very rarely occurring in the Gulf but gracing Kuwait with their presence, were on the knife’s edge since we first started studying them, in 2008. And last year, not one nest. As turtles only nest once every two or three years, we shall await this nesting season and the next one. In anticipation. In suspense. If no nesting activity is observed, it could mean that Kuwait has lost a national treasure, an endangered species which trusted its sandy beaches possibly for many hundreds, maybe thousands of years and is now lost, along with the biodiversity that supports it. Another blow to the ecological balance of Kuwaiti seas.
The southern islands of this beautiful country boast beauty that few areas in the region can boast. Coral reefs, dolphins, whales, amazing numbers of fish, cephalopods and crustaceans, a magical symphony of colors and a unique harmony, home to all creatures that add to the precious natural heritage of previous and future generations. But it’s the present generation that holds the key for the efficient preservation of this heritage that it is merely borrowing from their ancestors to pass on to their children and grandchildren: History is proving that Kuwaitis and the sea have always been very close, and modern times will define if this relationship is one of respect and sustainability or one of destruction. The bet is on, and sea turtles are its most evident indicator…
By Nancy Papathanasopoulou
www.bio-e.org
This news has been read 4926 times!
You must be logged in to post a comment.