travelTheNationalSaturday, May 22, 2010 www.thenational.ae

Deep impactThe seas around Oman’s Musandam peninsula are home to spectacular but fragile coral reefs. Homa Khaleeli joins a diving expedition to help to protect this sublime underwater world

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Freefalling through the clear water, I realised I had made a terrible mis-take. When I signed up to take part in a diving expedition off Oman’s Musandam peninsula I had ne-glected to remember one thing; I couldn’t really dive.

Sure, I had the Padi open-water diving certificate that was the re-quirement for the expedition, but I got that almost a decade ago on a trip to Thailand and had long since forgotten the practical skills I learnt.

Now, surrounded by enthusiasts with hundreds of dives in exotic locations under their weight belts, I was regretting my optimism; one refresher course in my local swim-ming pool had obviously not been enough to bring me up to speed.

Yet despite my misgivings the

opportunity had been too tempting to ignore – Biosphere Expeditions, a not-for-profit organisation spe-cialising in adventurous conser-vation vacations, was for the first time taking divers to the breathtak-ing fjords of Musandam.

Our base would be a dhow cruis-ing the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman and our task would be to help to protect the peninsula’s spectacular coral reefs.

So far, everything had gone well. Arriving on a small, prop-driven light aircraft from Oman’s capital, Muscat, I had joined my fellow vol-unteers on board the dhow, sailing out from Khasab harbour.

Among the group were divers from the US, Brazil, Germany, the UK and the UAE – as well as the team’s marine biologist, the glamorous

and enthusiastic Rita Bento. Lead-ing us was Matthias Hammer, a former soldier in Germany’s para-chute regiment and biologist, in-ternational rower, survival expert and head of Biosphere Expedi-tions.

Matthias explained that in Mu-sandam our group would be taking part in Reef Check, an internation-al reef-monitoring scheme that allows scientists to compare the state of these complex eco-systems around the world. But before we could start on the survey we would have to be trained – taking exams in fish, invertebrate and coral rec-ognition – and prove we could dive without damaging the reefs we had come to protect.

Musandam, continued on 7 →

The rugged coastline of Musandam, Oman. Biosphere Expeditions is conducting diving conservation holidays to map out and study the marine life and coral in the waters off the peninsula. Courtesy of Michele Steffey

Volunteers doing Reef Check surveys have to take classes to improve buoyancy control. Courtesy of Biosphere Expeditions

Which was when my problems started. Trying to assemble the various tubes, gauges and safety clips made me realise just how much I had forgotten. In a panic, I confessed my inexperience to Rita. Luckily the group was sweetly en-couraging. Rita immediately put me under the care of Connie, a cer-tified dive instructor who gave me some much needed one-to-one tui-tion.

As I flailed through the water for the first time I wasn’t sure I should have come, but when I saw the reef itself I knew I had made the right decision.

Dipping under the water was to enter a world in Technicolor. I spot-ted a combative lionfish displaying its stripes and psychedelic parrot-fish grazing on coral. Floating past rocks studded with black, spiky ur-chins were huge Arabian angelfish.

And of course the corals them-selves were beautiful – intricate structures in primary colours.

Discovering that such beauty is under threat would be enough to turn anyone into an eco-warrior and back on board the dhow Rita explained that reefs were disap-pearing at a terrifying rate around the world.

Coral is home to 33 per cent of the world’s fish and generates income for more than 20 million people. Too few of us understand that it is not a plant or rock, but made up of tiny living organisms, called polyps, which are frighteningly easy to kill.

Swimmers who touch it, the an-chors of boats, litter, global warm-ing, deep-sea trawlers and disease – all can damage the reef. Some scientists say rising acidity levels in the sea, caused by increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, may lead to the disintegration of more than 9,000 of the world’s reefs in the next 100 years.

In Musandam, the peninsula’s status as a sleepy backwater seems to have protected the reef. Com-mercial fishing, for instance, is banned, although the illegal spear-fishing that takes place can be harmful. Tourism in the area is still low-key although I heard stories of local boats taking visitors to swim and even walk on the reef without explaining the dangers. A recent cy-clone and algae bloom have also af-fected the health of the Musandam reef, according to Rita.

The key to protecting the coral in Oman is gathering accurate infor-mation about the threats it is fac-ing and that was why we were there, as part of Reef Check. Covering as many areas of the peninsula’s reef as possible, our group would dive to collect specific data; this would be analysed by Rita who would pro-duce a report for local conservation groups, outlining exactly what pro-tection the reef needed.

To do this, we had first to learn what “indicator species” to look for – the fish and creatures that would show the state of health of the underwater ecosystem – and so for the first three days we joined Rita at 7am for lessons on how to distinguish between a grouper fish (grumpy-looking) and sweetlips (they pout like Angelina Jolie); just as important are the invertebrates,

such as the crown of thorns starfish and the vicious-looking moray eels.

Next came classes about the coral itself – how to distinguish between hard and soft coral, coral bleached by high temperatures and coral killed by disease.

In the afternoons Rita set us un-derwater tasks, from playing “rock, paper, scissors” to passing weights between us, designed to assess and improve our buoyancy control to ensure we would not bump into the coral.

By this time I was so terrified of harming the reef that I kept bob-bing to the surface like a helium balloon in a wetsuit.

Despite the hard work, the trip was far from a hair-shirt experience. In the evenings there was time to lounge on the carpets and cushions

that covered the dhow’s decks and enjoy the delicious food prepared by the Keralite cook, Polly, before retiring to our tiny but cool and comfortable cabins, some of which were en-suite.

And then there was the landscape itself. This exclave of Oman is known for its austere beauty. End-less limestone cliffs, unrelieved by vegetation, plunge straight into the sea below. Stretching out into the Strait of Hormuz, the pe-ninsula is close enough to Iran to spot the small boats of smugglers shuttling back and forth, weighed down with goats and cigarettes. Yet as the dhow steered through the fjord-like channels, only a few fish-ing villages interrupted the sense of isolation.

The balmy temperature of Oman and the silence of the surrounding

limestone crags tempted almost everyone to bunk down on the decks; although the days were tir-ing, waking in the gentle dawn af-ter a night under the stars was as refreshing and removed from real life as any holiday spent lounging on a beach.

My fellow volunteers were a fas-cinating mix of keen divers and general adventurers and helped to make the trip a laid-back experi-ence. Any down-time was taken up with tall tales of diving with giant squids and sharks or, for the more energetic, scuba-less “free-diving” classes from Adil, a volunteer from the UAE. With his mono-fin and a lungful of air he could reach great-er depths than I ever could with my oxygen tank.

Thanks to the support of the group, by the time we were ready to start the Reef Check I was at least competent enough to help to lay a tape along the seabed, marking off the section of reef the group would be investigating. The volunteers swam slowly along it in pairs, not-ing the species they saw, though it took practice to learn to move care-fully enough to be able to count the fish and sea creatures. To ensure as much of the reef as possible was surveyed, the group made three dives a day for the final three days.

As I swam near by, watching the volunteers dangling upside down as they checked under rocks for lobsters or banded coral shrimps, or move in slow motion as they tried not to startle the snub-nose butterfly fish, it was dizzying to see the teeming life of the reef – and thrilling to be able to name the fish I saw.

For the first time, I noticed how some coral would “flicker”, when

the tiny polyps sensed my pres-ence and retracted; when I found myself caught up in a silver stream of fusiliers I could only wonder at the beauty of the underwater world. I felt like I was in a scene from Avatar.

After the trip was over and we had all returned home, Rita and Mat-thias kept us updated with the re-sults of our Reef Check and those of other groups they had taken to Mu-sandam. The Reef Check survey will need to continue for several years before a clear picture of the state of the reef can be built up, but even our set of findings showed there were some signs of damage caused by boats, often by anchors, rubbish and old fishing nets.

On the plus side there was little coral bleaching or sign of disease although, said Rita, with recurrent oil spills in the region and water temperatures rising, the reef would need to continue to be monitored.

We had also confirmed the pres-ence of damsel fish, angel fish, sea breams and emperor fish, as well as lots of snappers and diadem urchins, but Rita feared the low number of sweetlips might be a sign of overfishing, although this cannot be confirmed until next year’s surveys.

Overall, the result was an encour-aging one. There was still a lot of coral in Musandam – and, with plentiful nearby rocks, there are even more places for it to grow and thrive.

Learning and swimming on the reef was an unforgettable experi-ence. And while I may not have been the most competent eco-war-rior, I am still proud of the tiny part I played in trying to keep this eco-system safe.

07Saturday, May 22, 2010 www.thenational.aeThe National travel

Thanks to the dive surveys carried out by its clients in 2009, Biosphere Expeditions has now accumulated enough data to press ahead with its goal of having Musandam’s coral reefs designated as a Marine Protected Area (MPA), a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and, perhaps, even as a World Heritage Site.

“This will take time and some significant support at government and other levels, but we have made a start,” said Matthias Hammer, head of Biosphere Expeditions, in an email circulating its 2009 project report and thanking all the divers who had taken part in its Reef Check surveys.

Last year’s survey, conducted at 18 sites dived between October 18 and 31, found larger populations of butterfly

fish and snappers than of sweetlips and parrotfish, though the concentration of snappers was far greater than typical in the Indo-Pacific region. However, numbers of groupers, a popular catch for fishermen, were notably low.

Not all abundance is welcome; in the survey of invertebrates, the discovery that the number of diadema urchins was significantly higher than average was a cause for concern, as its presence “increases bioerosion activity in the area, making new coral recruitment difficult”.

On the other hand, the mean hard coral coverage of 34 per cent identified by the survey is better than the worldwide calculated coverage of 30 per cent.

Further Reef Check surveys, together

with studies of fish catches, should be carried out to address concerns in more details, says Biosphere Expeditions, a partner of the UN Year of Biodiversity 2010.

The designation of a Marine Protected Area, or a network of MPAs, “would also help to overcome the principal problems encountered, such as the lack of available data on natural resources, the absence of proper fixed and marked mooring buoys and low public awareness”.

Declaring the Musandam peninsula a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve and, eventually, a World Heritage Site, “is something that should be considered at a government level”.

When I found myself caught up in a silver stream of fusiliers, I could only wonder at the beauty of the underwater world. I felt like I was in a scene from Avatar

Musandam, continued from 1 →

Protecting the peninsula’s reefs

for the family. Travelmood Adventures’ Kids in Kasbah package offers a taste of Morocco. From US$570 (Dh2,094) per person (excluding flights). Includes five nights’ hotel stay, road transfers, sightseeing and entrance fees to major sites. Visit www.travelmoodadventures.comfun

The expedition The next Musandam diving trips with Biosphere Expeditions (www.biosphere-expeditions.org; 00 44870 446 0801) run from October 10-16 and October 17-23 this year. The six-night trip costs $1,780 (Dh6,538), including training and accommodation and food aboard a modern dhow. You need a Padi open-water qualification or equivalent to take part. Allow five hours to get from Abu Dhabi to Khasab.

The hotel Double rooms at the Golden Tulip Khasab (www.goldentulipkhasab.com; 00968 2673 0777) cost from $167 (Dh614) including taxes

Muscat

Abu DhabiDubai

MusandamPeninsula(Oman)

IRAN

UAE

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X if you go

Source: Graphic News

Clockwise from left, coral covered with orange sponge; the reefs are home to a stunning range of marine life; Dr Matthias Hammer briefs the team before a dive; a Reef Check survey in progress. Photographs courtesy of Biosphere Expeditions