If you haven’t yet noticed, a large dome has popped up on Abu Dhabi Corniche. And no, it’s not a big football or golf ball (despite what cab drivers may think) it’s an ecological exhibition, complete with real mangroves, turtles, films and a voting booth for the new Seven Wonders of the World contest.
But the first thing you’ll notice is the scale model of Bu Tinah Island, covered with helpful figurines to show you the concentrations of the different wildlife that inhabit the reserve. Tear your eyes away from that for a second and to the right you’ll find a mangrove nursery, with a hundred baby plants just waiting to join the big boys.
‘We’re trying to get people to understand the importance of mangroves,’ says Laila Yousef Al Hassan, communications manager for the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency, ‘So we’ve recreated a small nursery. A lot of people who grew up in the city don’t appreciate mangroves until they see them up close.’
The UAE has one species of mangrove, the grey mangrove, and thanks to it being a protected zone Bu Tinah has the densest population of them in the area. It may seem strange that people aren’t allowed there, but this is a core area, critical to the surrounding wildlife and environment. Some people (such as scientists) are in fact allowed to visit, and there have even been a couple of media trips, but the agency always picks the right time for it, when the turtles aren’t nesting, and the birds can’t be disturbed. ‘We’ve also planted 800,000 mangroves in Saadiyat Island, as part of a rehabilitation effort – no small feat. And we have planned an activity with the hundred mangrove saplings we have here. We want 100 students from one of our sustainable schools to plant them,’ adds Laila.
And if saplings don’t rock your boat (shame on you) the turtles definitely will. Helena is a female green turtle that was brought in by the island’s rangers because she was growing quite slowly. The guys will feed her up, get her nice and healthy and release her back into Bu Tinah. ‘Green turtles are found around the world, but their populations are quite isolated. We’ve done satellite tracking, and turtles in the Arabian Gulf tend to stay in the Arabian Gulf, which makes them a lot more susceptible to local extinction,’ says Laila. But while the greens may be relatively safe for now, the hawksbill turtles are critically endangered, as classified by the IUCN. There aren’t any on display in the dome, of course, but there is a robotic turtle that you’ll mistake for real, especially when she starts laying her eggs.
‘Turtles are killed all the time. Things like pollution, or getting hit by boats, or accidental drowning in fishermen’s nets, and by plastic bags – plastic bags kill more turtles globally than anything else. And it’s a very painful death as well; the lucky ones simply choke on the plastic bags and die, but others feed on the bags thinking they’re jellyfish, and as their stomachs get full they feel satiated. Those turtles ultimately die of starvation.’
But this is just a peek at the reserve’s beautiful biodiversity, Bu Tinah has plenty of species that need to be protected. Flamingos are there all year round, and they use the island as a resting stop, something like a vacation to the Maldives for the rest of us. Abu Dhabi has the densest population of dugongs (sea cows) in the world, and some 3,000 of these guys spend their winters in the Abu Dhabi waters, gobbling up 35kg of sea grass a day.
And last, but certainly not least, there’s the Environment Show with Ask Ali, the first UAE nature documentary series made by and starring local experts. The Dome runs a new episode each week, and releases the old ones on YouTube. Last week’s was about the hawksbill, and this week it’ll be about the mangroves. ‘It’s all about creating environmental ambassadors in the coming generations, and we’re grateful for all the support the media has given us,’ says Al Hassan. You hear that? Visit the dome, and make us look good.
Check out the Environment Show on Youtube, at www.youtube.com/user/abudhabienvironment. Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (02 445 4777).
