KUWAIT CITY // A group of Kuwaiti divers has reported bleaching in more than 90 per cent of the country's coral reefs - a sign that the coral is either sick or dead.
"This is really bad," Dari al Huwail, a member of Kuwait Dive Team, said. "Before Ramadan, it seemed normal; there were signs of bleaching, but they were not unusual, at least to me." After the holy month, "we went diving for a conservation project and were shocked to discover how massive the bleaching was".
When team members dived at a reef near Umm al Maradim island, they noticed most of the brightly coloured corals had turned a sickly white. When two teams of divers inspected Kuwait's seven other major reefs this week, they realised that the whole country was affected.
"We're not scientific experts, we don't have a background in marine biology, but we are professional in documenting what we see," Mr al Huwail said. The team said it was ready to collaborate with international experts to discover why the corals have turned white and try to solve the problem.
Ali Haidar, the deputy director general of the government's Environmental Protection Agency, said in a statement on Monday that the bleaching was probably caused by rising sea temperatures. Sea temperatures around Kuwait have soared to 35°C this year.
About 20 per cent of the coral reefs are dead and 60 per cent "are affected and may return to their normal condition depending on their surrounding natural conditions", Mr Haidar said.
Bleaching occurs when the pigmented algae that live in the coral's tissue are expelled, revealing the coral's bright white skeleton. Without the algae, the coral begins to starve.
Thomas Goreau, the president of Global Reef Alliance, a non-governmental organisation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, dedicated to studying and restoring coral reefs, said the reefs have suffered from massive bleaching all over the world this year.
"This year is certainly the hottest year in history," Mr Goreau said. "This is a result of global warming."
If the sea exceeds its average temperature during the hottest time of year by 1°C for one month, the coral will turn white, Mr Goreau said. If the temperature remains high for two months or increases to 2°C above the average for one month, the corals will die.
The phenomenon has been discovered in the Gulf because Kuwait Dive Team actively surveys the country's marine environment, Mr Goreau said. He expects coral reefs in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Iran have all undergone a similar change, but the damage has not been reported yet.
Mr Goreau, who has been tracking global sea temperatures by satellite since 1982 and visiting endangered reefs all over the world, said the bleaching began in the southern hemisphere this year. Coral reefs in Mauritius were the first to bleach and others were affected as the location of maximum temperature migrated across the globe.
Coral reefs in the Seychelles and the Maldives were next to feel the effect of the extraordinary heat, then Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. Waters off the Philippines and the Caribbean have also faced unusually high temperatures this year, Mr Goreau said.
When coral reefs die, the sea loses the majority of its marine diversity and fish will disappear in search of other areas to feed and serve as a nursery for their young. Dead reefs will not absorb wave energy or replenish sand, causing nearby beaches to slowly erode.
"Coral reefs are the most fragile ecosystem there is," Mr Goreau said. "They can be killed by water that is too hot, cold, salty, fresh, muddy or has an excess of nutrients. Boats' anchors pose a physical threat to the delicate reefs, as does dredging to build islands and ports or to clear lanes for shipping."
Scientists are unsure why coral reefs have grown in the Gulf despite extreme temperatures, saline and muddy waters, and high levels of pollution from sewage and the petrochemicals industry. Mr Goreau said if researchers were given the opportunity to study why the region's corals are so resilient, it might be an opportunity to propagate them to other parts of the world.
"These are exceptional corals because they've been pushed beyond conditions that no other corals could survive, but now they've been pushed beyond their limit."
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Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
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Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
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Abu Dhabi GP schedule
Friday: First practice - 1pm; Second practice - 5pm
Saturday: Final practice - 2pm; Qualifying - 5pm
Sunday: Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (55 laps) - 5.10pm
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Starfield
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Thank You for Banking with Us
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Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
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Abu Dhabi card
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: SimpliFi
Started: August 2021
Founder: Ali Sattar
Based: UAE
Industry: Finance, technology
Investors: 4DX, Rally Cap, Raed, Global Founders, Sukna and individuals
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