Nakheel to create 500 artificial reefs off Dubai

Nakeel, which does not permit "commercial" fishing at any of it waterfront developments, will create over 500 artificial reefs that will improve habitat for reef fishes in Dubai’s waters.
 
“There will be a minimum of over 500 artificial reefs which will be built using the natural resources (rocks) in our country,” Nakheel Chairman Ali Rashid Lootah said.
 
The initiative is being launched with Emirates Marine Environmental Group (EMEG), a UAE-based non-profit organization, with fishing possible in these areas in the next six months. It will take almost a year to create the artifical reefs.
 

As the first marine environmental group in the country, EMEG provides services and solutions for a variety of projects focusing on a range of marine and terrestrial environmental issues from around the country.
 
Although Lootah declined to give the total cost of creating the reefs, he said: “We need to appoint a consultant, we need to figure out the sizes of the reefs and only then we can arrive at the cost.
 
“This is a CSR initiative from our side. There is no pressure on us from the local fishing community or otherwise.”
 
In a statement issued at the event, the company said: “Historically, fishing was an important industry and a way of life for the local people of Dubai. Today fishing is still an important industry and even for non-fishing residents of the community, the availability of locally caught fresh seafood is one of the attractions of life in Dubai. The construction of the Palms and other developments along with the Dubai coastline has involved the lost of traditional fishing grounds and no commercial fishing is currently permitted at Nakheel developments.”
 
According to the company, some sites such as northwest of Palm Jebel Ali will be suitable for the development of quasi-natural coral reefs, while sites near the Waterfront islands and The World will be suitable for commercial fisheries.
 
In June, Atlantis, The Palm, said it was planning to create 25 to 30 artificial reefs from recycled plastic to help habitat and protect local marine life and corals.
“We have created three now and we will be lowering them soon in a protected area off Jebel Ali. This is our effort in protecting the local marine life and protecting and preserving the ocean’s habitat,” Steve Kaiser, Vice President of Marine Science and Engineering, Atlantis, The Palm, had said.
 
Coral reefs comprise less than 0.5 per cent of the ocean floor and it is estimated that more than 90 per cent of marine species are directly or indirectly dependent on them, while nearly 60 per cent of the world’s remaining reefs are at significant risk of being lost in the next three decades.

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