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This joint project between Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) and Marine Sciences and Fisheries Center (MSFC) was funded by the Fisheries Research Fund, Ministry of Fisheries Wealth (Sultanate of Oman).
For more details: Dr. Saoud Al-Habsi
The Director General of Fisheries Research
Ministry of Fisheries Wealth
P.O.Box 427, PC 100: Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Dr. Ahmed Al-Gheilani (Project manager, MSFC)
Dr. Adnan R. Al-Azri (Principal Investigator, SQU)
Dr. Sergey Piontkosvki (Co-Principal Investigator, SQU)
Dr. Sergey Dobretsov (Co-Principal Investigator, SQU)
Dr. Y.V.B. Sarma (Co-Principal Investigator, SQU)
The Sultanate of Oman, with its 1700 km-long coastline has extremely rich fishing grounds, the potential of which has yet to be fully evaluated and scientifically managed. Fish landings in the region are subjected to periodic losses however. The harmful algal blooms (HABs) and the appearance of the waters with depleted oxygen are believed to be the major causes of periodic massive fish kills along the coast.
HABs in the coastal waters of Oman have been documented for nearly three decades, some of them causing damage to the marine environment and economic losses to the fisheries industry. As the blooms lead to massive fish kills, there is an urgent need to monitor the outbreaks and to take appropriate measures for the mitigation of fisheries damage especially for aquaculture.
Objectives - To create a regional multilateral database incorporating direct oceanographical field surveys and remotely sensed (satellite) data on the sea surface temperature and ocean color linked to the dates of field surveys.
- To understand the mesoscale physical-biological interactions underlying Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs), Oxygen Minimum Zone (OMZ), and resulting in fish kills in the Gulf of Oman.
- To analyze possible consequences of HABs and OMZ for bacterioplankton (as a food of zooplankton and a source of toxins), zooplankton (as the food resource for fish) and fish populations.
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The Sultanate of Oman occupies the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula
and has a total area of 312,500 km2.
It is bordered in the north-west by the United Arab Emirates, in the west by Saudi Arabia and in the south-west by Yemen. A detached area of Oman, separated from the rest of the country by the United Arab Emirates, lies at the tip of the Musandam Peninsula, on the southern shore of the Strait of Hormuz.
The country has a coastline of almost 1,700 km, from the Strait of Hormuz in the north to the borders of the Republic of Yemen in the south-west, overlooking three seas: the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. In terms of seasonal changes, the monsoonal regime makes the Omani coast a valuable study case for monitoring the coastal ecosystem affected by one of the most intensive coastal upwelling in the Worlds Ocean.
Despite several international expeditions carried out in the northwestern Arabian Sea in the frame of the JGOFS project (Smith, 2001; Report on the Indian Ocean Synthesis Group on the Arabian Sea Process Study, 2002), the ecology of the coastal waters of Oman, particularly along the Gulf of Oman, is still poorly understood however. |
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