A report
hereThe Palm Jumeirah would also negatively affect marine wildlife. All mobile biota would flee the area, and the benthic organisms in or near the construction zone would be buried or asphyxiated. What organisms lived here pre-Palm Jumeirah?In its analysis of the local fish population and the potential for local fishing, MME states that fish counts yielded low numbers of benthic and demersal fish. According to the fish counts, 35 species of fish inhabited the study area. The tiny, benthic Prawn-Goby Cryptocentrus lutheri exhibited the most dominance and abundance. Other species that MME frequently encountered were Mojarras (Gerres oyena and related species) and banded Terapons (Terapon puta) (20). Some members of these species would die during Palm Jumeirah’s construction, especially the benthic Gobies
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“The species affected are very common. The fish species frequenting sandy and muddy areas are highly mobile and could move away from the construction site.” MME also asserts that the pelagic fish, such as Carangidae and Scombridae, would flee the area, and would not experience significant impacts. But would this fish displacement affect local fishermen? The MME teamobserved some fishing in the area but concluded that it was not important for subsistence because the fish populations exhibited too low density to sufficiently sustain the fishermen. Therefore, MME concluded that The Palm Jumeirah would not negatively impact any local fisheries. (Interestingly, one of the local NGOs complained that Nakheel was not giving back to the community of locals and fishermen.) Martin Mid-East’s researchers also found many different kinds of invertebrates. “The fauna consisted primarily of bivalve shells… burrowing sea-urchins, and surface-feeding snails” (
. In addition, they observed sponges, sea cucumbers, snails, sea urchins, starfish, sea pens, corals, and dense pearl oyster (Pinctada radiata) beds. Still, they commented “Total biomass is usually low.” Sometimes the oyster beds also contained coral and sponges, in cohabitation. Martin Mid-East pointed out that these oyster beds would die if Nakheel built The Palm Jumeirah. “The construction process will without doubt kill large areas of oysters, this will, however, not endanger the species.”
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The construction process would kill not only oysters, but also coral; although according to MME, coral were rare in the sampled area. Martin Mid-East states that sparse colonies of Siderastrea siderea, Pseudosiderastrea tayamai, and faviids often colonized Gulf caprock. The Martin Mid-East team expected some members of these species to suffer mortality from The Palm’s construction. Although MME believed that The Palm Jumeirah’s construction would especially kill some coral, it also believed that “This will not have deleterious effects on local populations” (9). In fact, MME expected corals to recruit strongly to the newly-created, hard substratum on The Palm Jumeirah’s breakwater
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“In the area of immediate impact, i.e. the area that is to be filled, the result is obvious. The local fauna and flora will be completely and irrevocably lost. The area under question consists mainly of bare sand, one oysterbed and some areas of rocky ledge and artificial reef. While the sessile benthos and infauna will remain in the area and be killed, the mobile fauna elements will move away from the area of direct impact and most likely survive, Mobile fauna (fishes, other vertebrates, urchins) are not very site specific or territorial and will therefore not haveproblems resettling. The sessile benthos that will be killed does not consist of any rare or endangered species. Sufficient resources exist in the study area and in other areas of the Gulf. (24) Of course, organisms can move away from a construction site only if the site is small enough to allow them to exit it before they suffer too much damage.
The smaller a construction site is, the lesser its ecological harm. Hence, Nakheel needed to minimize Palm Jumeirah’s construction site. To minimize the area affected and to prevent fine sediments from spreading to areas surrounding the immediate construction site, MME suggested that Nakheel suspend large silt screens (cloth screens that confine silt and minimize the chances for silt-plume development) around the construction site. Martin Mid East was concerned that if silt screens were not used, sediments would extend to areas surrounding The Palm. Thosesuspended sediments could clog marine organisms’ gills and nutritive openings. Any particularly fine sediments would remain suspended for long periods of time, afflicting the resident biota. Eventually, the fine sediments would settle on the bottom but would become re-suspended during storms, and thus, would resume afflicting the local marine biota—in an unending cycle.
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Unfortunately, as Dr. Williams explains, Nakheel did not take MME’s advice Nakheel did not use silt screens. Instead Nakheel allowed the plumes to extend many kilometers beyond the construction site. Subsequently, says Dr. Williams, PalmJumeirah’s construction affects an area three times its own size (according to estimates by Nakheel). The Palm itself, being 5 km long and 5 km wide, directly impacts a 25-km2area. Plumes of suspended sediments extend more than 25km2to the left and 25 km2to the right of The Jumeirah Palm. Hence construction affects at least 75 km2of the marine environment. An organism in the middle of the construction site would have to travel as far as 5 km out into the Gulf or as much as 35 km along the coast before it could escape direct burial or asphyxiation by suspended sediments; therefore, I believe that most of the marine organisms never escaped from that large area. The findings of the United Nations University-International Network on Water, Environment, and Health team support this theory.
