The marine environment is heavily exposed to all kinds of threats. From the
of the water to the
, the marine ecosystem is slowly dying. This issue is also affecting the Middle East, most notably the Gulf region where shark finning is a common practice. The latter consists of the removal of the sharks’ fins while they are alive which causes them to die slowly and painfully. Fishermen remove the fins because they are in high demand in the market. People tend to use fins as ingredients in various dishes, including the shark fin soup, a popular dish in China.
Protecting the sharks from this practice
A Lebanese scientist based in Dubai named Rima Jabado has always been fascinated by the marine life, more specifically sharks. Her Ph.D. is about the shark population in the Arabian Gulf. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puv2TXlvmgw She is a lead scientist in Gulf Elasmo Project, a non-profit initiative that aims at preserving sharks, rays, guitarfishes, and sawfishes in the Arabian Seas region. Jabado is passionate about sharks, and her work is dedicated to learning more about the state of the sharks in this region. She is also aiming at getting an in-depth understanding of the way fisheries work in the Gulf region. The information that is collecting can be useful to develop new ways to protect the sharks in this region.