UAE Dolphin Project at the Dubai Boat Show!

What a great opportunity to be at the Dubai International Boat Show 2013, one of the most important and renowned event in the maritime sector!  The event was held at the Dubai International Marine Club Mina Seyahi from 5th to 9th March and provided us with a great platform to promote the project among the local, regional and international public.

We are extremely grateful to the Pavilion Dive Centre for allowing us to share their space and the Dubai Dolphinarium for sponsoring the printing of posters, stickers and business cards.  We were in the Dive Middle East Exhibition (DMEX) section and this was a great platform to reach a wide range of organisations, companies and people with a keen interest in the sea.

The public ranged from enthusiastic divers, passionate fishers, parents and children, businessmen and boat owners, and everyone we approached showed a real interest in the project, maybe just because we didn’t try to sell anything to them! Poster and stickers were also distributed to everybody while we explained the importance of reporting sightings and we had had a good feedback with people joining our Facebook page.

Our corner was kitted with a 20 minutes video proving the presence of dolphins in UAE waters through a collection of UTube videos of dolphin sightings made by the public (check out the playlist!) It also illustrated the key targets of the project, how the public can actively get involved in helping us to better understand the local dolphin population and also simple rules that everybody can follow to enjoy their sightings.

Overall we think it was a real success and we will definitely try our best to be there again next year!

 

UAE Dolphin Project speaks at the World Wetland Day Event…

It was a great honour to be invited to present at the World Wetland Day event 2013 held and organised by Dubai Municipality on the 10th of February. Thank you to Mr. Mohammad AbdulRahman Hassan Abdulla, Head of the Marine Environment and Wildlife Section, that gave us this opportunity.  The main theme this year was: “Wetlands take care of water”. In UAE the sea is the main source of important wetland areas like the Ras al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary (RAKWS). The event was attended by over 70 participants including students from local secondary schools and attendees from the government, private, scientific, RAKWS stakeholders, international media company.  The full report of the event is available at: http://www.ramsar.org/pdf/wwd/13/PDF_reports/WWD2013_UAE.pdf

Mr. Mohammad AbdulRahman Hassan Abdulla introduced the event stressing the importance of water and its relevance to wetland management. Other invited speakers were Mr Sultan Al Zaabi of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) that illustrated ways and means on how to sustainably manage our water and Ms. Shaikha Hassan Ali AlShehhi, Head of the Environment Protection Section, Planning Department of the Municipality of Ajman that presented the richness of the Al-Zawraa Protected Area in Ajman, another potential Ramsar Site of UAE.