ABU DHABI // New rules governing the creation of artificial reefs in the Arabian Gulf will help to promote research and develop healthy marine life, the country’s environment ministry says.
Dropping concrete structures known as reef balls into the water can help with building habitats for diverse marine life and improve fish stocks, officials said.
Regulations announced last week are intended to allow educational institutions and other organisations to set up the reefs while allowing the ministry monitor their development.
The law regulates the building of artificial reefs, describing the technique as the safest and most effective way to create sustainable marine reef habitats.
It takes about five years for them to develop into fully-fledged reef systems but signs of growth are visible after a few weeks, according to the ministry.
“It aims to safeguard the sustainability of living aquatic resources as well as to enhance fish stocks in UAE waters and protect the country’s natural heritage,” said Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment.
Artificial reefs have been used in the Gulf for hundreds of years, when fishermen sank palm tree trunks to help promote fish life. So important were these techniques that the skills and locations of the reefs were passed down through generations of families.
“The use of artificial reefs in the Gulf is nothing new, it’s been known for hundreds if not thousands of years that people would deploy palm trunks and these would be inherited through family lines by the law of the sea,” said Professor John Burt, a marine biologist in NYUAD.
The ministry’s ruling will set guidelines for mapping, licensing and construction.
Some experts fear artificial reefs could deplete marine life stocks as fish will be concentrated in one area or will migrate to other areas of the Gulf.
“There’s a real battle in science literature on this, which is completely unresolved and research has been going on this topic for decades,” said Prof Burt. “Anything you throw in the water will essentially attract fish, because fish love structure. Can they attract fish with the artificial reef? Yes, they can. The question is where are these fish coming from?”
Whether fish congregating around an artificial reef is a result of that reef increasing reproduction, or simply an exodus of schools from the other natural habitats is a significant variable researchers must examine.
Prof Burt said the result is always fish attraction, but it is how these results are managed that creates concern.
“This can actually lead to more fish overexploitation. What happens is they are now much easier to catch because they are in one place instead of spread out over a larger area,” he said.
He said in order to increase the chances of artificial reefs promoting biomass, the areas where they are deployed must be protected for generations and the habitat given a chance to thrive.
Although more research is needed, a recent Oxford Journal article by Jennifer Granneman and Mark Steele showed that the potential for protection of artificial reefs could result in healthier species reproduction.
“Fish species richness was not significantly different between artificial and natural reefs, but density and biomass tended to be higher on average on artificial reefs, body size was slightly smaller and assemblage structure differed between the two reef types,” they wrote.
The ministerial decision prohibits building artificial reefs in areas within three nautical miles of the shore as well as in marine reserves and near state-owned islands.
nalwasmi@thenational.ae
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Anxiety and work stress major factors
Anxiety, work stress and social isolation are all factors in the recogised rise in mental health problems.
A study UAE Ministry of Health researchers published in the summer also cited struggles with weight and illnesses as major contributors.
Its authors analysed a dozen separate UAE studies between 2007 and 2017. Prevalence was often higher in university students, women and in people on low incomes.
One showed 28 per cent of female students at a Dubai university reported symptoms linked to depression. Another in Al Ain found 22.2 per cent of students had depressive symptoms - five times the global average.
It said the country has made strides to address mental health problems but said: “Our review highlights the overall prevalence of depressive symptoms and depression, which may long have been overlooked."
Prof Samir Al Adawi, of the department of behavioural medicine at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman, who was not involved in the study but is a recognised expert in the Gulf, said how mental health is discussed varies significantly between cultures and nationalities.
“The problem we have in the Gulf is the cross-cultural differences and how people articulate emotional distress," said Prof Al Adawi.
“Someone will say that I have physical complaints rather than emotional complaints. This is the major problem with any discussion around depression."
Daniel Bardsley
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How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
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What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
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