UAE Dolphin Project at the Dubai Boat Show!

What a great opportunity to be at the Dubai International Boat Show 2013, one of the most important and renowned event in the maritime sector!  The event was held at the Dubai International Marine Club Mina Seyahi from 5th to 9th March and provided us with a great platform to promote the project among the local, regional and international public.

We are extremely grateful to the Pavilion Dive Centre for allowing us to share their space and the Dubai Dolphinarium for sponsoring the printing of posters, stickers and business cards.  We were in the Dive Middle East Exhibition (DMEX) section and this was a great platform to reach a wide range of organisations, companies and people with a keen interest in the sea.

The public ranged from enthusiastic divers, passionate fishers, parents and children, businessmen and boat owners, and everyone we approached showed a real interest in the project, maybe just because we didn’t try to sell anything to them! Poster and stickers were also distributed to everybody while we explained the importance of reporting sightings and we had had a good feedback with people joining our Facebook page.

Our corner was kitted with a 20 minutes video proving the presence of dolphins in UAE waters through a collection of UTube videos of dolphin sightings made by the public (check out the playlist!) It also illustrated the key targets of the project, how the public can actively get involved in helping us to better understand the local dolphin population and also simple rules that everybody can follow to enjoy their sightings.

Overall we think it was a real success and we will definitely try our best to be there again next year!

 

Dubai English Speaking School Green Club Kids learn about dolphins…

….and they were very interested indeed! We have never seen so many attentive kids asking so many questions, what a joy! Mrs Sue runs the Green Club every Tuesday afternoon, an after school activity at DESS primary school attended by children from year 3 to year 6. It was with great pleasure that we took up her invitation to present the UAE Dolphin Project to her students on the 18th of February 2012.

We talked about dolphins and the fact that they are mammals like us but they adapted to live in aquatic environments, and what this implied for their evolution. We learned that dolphins do live not only in the sea but also in fresh waters like some species of river dolphins. The children were amazed to discover that there are also dolphins in Nepal! Most importantly we discuss the fact that dolphins are also in the coastal waters of Dubai  and Abu Dhabi and that everyone can see them if they pay attention when at sea! Kids also learned which species are more common in UAE, what are the characteristics that allow to recognise them and that they can now report their sightings on the UAE Dolphin Project website. Lots of things for 45 minutes!! I really hope to see them all soon for another exciting talk!

 

Reaching out the new generation: education and fun time at the Lycée Français Georges Pompidou

The UAE Dolphin Project works towards its educational goals, in all languages: this time was French!  The Project was accepted as one of the exhibitors at the annual Kermesse at the French school, Lycée Français Georges Pompidou, that took place on Friday 1st March 2013.

It was a lovely day full of fun! The event was organised as a big game where children were kitted out with a mini log book and had to collect stamps for each activity proposed in each stall. At our stall, we provided general information about the project and a dedicated poster showing the three dolphin species most commonly reported in Dubai coastal waters: the Indo-Pacific bottlenose, the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin and the finless porpoise. We also gave some simple information on how identify them at sea.  The challenge for the children was to rebuild three big puzzles each of them representing a dolphin species in the shortest time possible. All children from 3 to 12 years old enjoyed playing with them! The level of difficulty was adjusted by proposing one or more species together.

We introduced the game explaining to the children and their parents that seeing dolphins in the wild in the UAE is a real possibility! Just look out when you are at sea! We then gave them one clue on how to recognise the different species and after that the timer was started for one minute and the children had to reshape the puzzle of their choice.  Some of the children took it as a real challenge as they came back twice or three times to make them quicker and quicker!

Thank you to AIPE, association of parents who organized the Kermesse,  to Mary  and all the parents that kindly helped to animate the stall! We hope to see you next year!!

UAE Dolphin Project speaks at the World Wetland Day Event…

It was a great honour to be invited to present at the World Wetland Day event 2013 held and organised by Dubai Municipality on the 10th of February. Thank you to Mr. Mohammad AbdulRahman Hassan Abdulla, Head of the Marine Environment and Wildlife Section, that gave us this opportunity.  The main theme this year was: “Wetlands take care of water”. In UAE the sea is the main source of important wetland areas like the Ras al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary (RAKWS). The event was attended by over 70 participants including students from local secondary schools and attendees from the government, private, scientific, RAKWS stakeholders, international media company.  The full report of the event is available at: http://www.ramsar.org/pdf/wwd/13/PDF_reports/WWD2013_UAE.pdf

Mr. Mohammad AbdulRahman Hassan Abdulla introduced the event stressing the importance of water and its relevance to wetland management. Other invited speakers were Mr Sultan Al Zaabi of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) that illustrated ways and means on how to sustainably manage our water and Ms. Shaikha Hassan Ali AlShehhi, Head of the Environment Protection Section, Planning Department of the Municipality of Ajman that presented the richness of the Al-Zawraa Protected Area in Ajman, another potential Ramsar Site of UAE.

Strandings: sad events but an inestimable source of information….

… that can greatly advance our knowledge about these species and their role in the marine environment.

It is indeed always stressful to find marine creatures beached ashore, even more so when those are big animals like dolphins or sea turtles, sometimes still alive and in need of help. Most of the time nobody knows what to do to help the animal.

A “stranding” is defined as any event where a marine mammal or a sea turtle is cast ashore and they get entrapped in the shallow waters, alive or dead. Stranding can be of a single individual, like the small finless porpoise reported stranded in Kuwait (check on our Facebook Page), or multiple individuals, like in the recent case of a pod of false killer whales beached in Oman. Sometime strandings that involve significant numbers of individuals can be challenging to manage from a health perspective.

It can be difficult to pinpoint the causes that cause an animal to strand itself. The reasons behind mass strandings are still a topic of debate amongst scientists: most probably the principal factor at the root of mass strandings, is the strong social bond among individuals in a group. On the other hand, strandings of single individuals are thought to be caused by illness, or accidents such as a collision with a boat or a propeller, or drowning as consequence of by-catch. Underwater sonar activities can also represent a threat for cetaceans as very high frequency sounds can permanently damage the delicate cetacean hearing system that they use for echolocating and orientating underwater.

Although witnessing a stranding or discovering a dead dolphin can be upsetting, if experienced and skilled people are called on site, a sad event can turn into an inestimable source of information otherwise extremely difficult to obtain. In case of a live stranding, knowing how to handle the animal and what to do can actually end in a successful rescue. In case of a dead stranding, no matter how old the carcass is, carrying out a necropsy can provide invaluable information on the possible cause of death, status of the animal, parasites, diet, life history parameters and genetic information.

In many countries, especially where strandings are a frequent event, there are established stranding networks mostly lead by NGO organizations, supported by the local institutions and run on a volunteering basis. Volunteers are trained people able to conduct basic first aid or collect the necessary data, samples and picture. Data and samples are stores in a centralised database, and this maximises the information collected for scientific research.

In the UAE strandings seem not to be a frequent event, however we do have any estimate of the number of stranding that do not get reported and simply pass unnoticed. None of the Emirates have a centralised stranding network and it is our target to work in collaboration with the local authorities and organizations to develop a simple and efficient way to report strandings. The public can also play a vital role in this by getting simple proper training and learning the first aid actions to take in case of a stranding. So if you are interested, please check this space in the coming months and we will keep you updated about any initiative related to this subject. And remember: everyone can always help! If you encounter a cetacean in distress or dead, please contact us immediately (0566717164)!