We went with our homeschool group to the Emirates Marine Environmental Group last Thursday. We met Major Ali, the Emirate man who runs the site and saw a sample of pearls he and his family collected. They are keeping pearl diving alive.
We saw an instructional video and were given a mini lecture by one of the conservationists. Turtle egg laying season is almost here. So one of the tasks we helped with was beach clean up. They want to keep the beach pristine so the endangered hawkbill turtles don't go eating something bad for them and dying.
They patrol the beach every morning for turtle tracks so they can cover the egg stashes with a netting that will keep the desert fox out, but allow the baby turtles to make their way to the sea when they hatch.
Because it's a private beach/preserve, the kids were admonished to NOT take any seashells. Oh, that was so hard for the girls, and in all honesty me too. It was a sea shell mecca! They couldn't help picking up especially beautiful shells, but they were good and always put them back. We did collect a fair amount of litter that had either washed up or blown in.
We also went to the area where they have been planting mangroves. Did you know that mangroves take 3 times the amount of CO2 from the air that normal plants do? They are excellent for the environment. Unfortunately, sea grass/algae is bad for them. It chokes them and stunts their growth. So we waded through ankle deep sludgy mud and collected gallons of algae from around the baby mangroves. They save it to use for oil spills. It is VERY absorbant.
After a quick lunch, the kids were released to go use the kayaks and play in the lagoon. It was a gorgeous day.
That big one is priced at 200,000AED. The smaller ones are usually ground up to make shiny eye make-up.
We saw an instructional video and were given a mini lecture by one of the conservationists. Turtle egg laying season is almost here. So one of the tasks we helped with was beach clean up. They want to keep the beach pristine so the endangered hawkbill turtles don't go eating something bad for them and dying.
They patrol the beach every morning for turtle tracks so they can cover the egg stashes with a netting that will keep the desert fox out, but allow the baby turtles to make their way to the sea when they hatch.
Because it's a private beach/preserve, the kids were admonished to NOT take any seashells. Oh, that was so hard for the girls, and in all honesty me too. It was a sea shell mecca! They couldn't help picking up especially beautiful shells, but they were good and always put them back. We did collect a fair amount of litter that had either washed up or blown in.
Timothy, Isaac and ? carrying a rather heavy load of rubbish.
Macey, Elaine, Rayyan, Jess
We also went to the area where they have been planting mangroves. Did you know that mangroves take 3 times the amount of CO2 from the air that normal plants do? They are excellent for the environment. Unfortunately, sea grass/algae is bad for them. It chokes them and stunts their growth. So we waded through ankle deep sludgy mud and collected gallons of algae from around the baby mangroves. They save it to use for oil spills. It is VERY absorbant.
Makenna and Kaitlyn in the muck.
That sounds like the best day ever.
ReplyDelete