KUWAIT CITY // The seawater temperature in Kuwait Bay has been increasing at three times the global average rate since 1985, putting local fish stocks under pressure , a study by a researcher at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, England has found.

Thamer al Rashidi, 38, who carried out the four-year study for his doctorate in physical oceanography, said the temperature in Kuwait Bay is rising at an average rate of 0.62°C every decade. The intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates the world average to be around one third of that figure.

Although the study focused on Kuwait Bay, the body of water to the north of Kuwait City, temperatures in the rest of the Gulf are also increasing at an alarming rate.

Mr al Rashidi said: “Temperature in the Arabian Gulf is increasing at 0.52°C per decade, and if you go closer to the shoreline, you will find it’s higher.”

He said the sea around Dubai and Abu Dhabi will most likely have increases similar to that in Kuwait Bay.

The research used data on sea surface temperature from 1985 to 2007 taken by a number of polar orbiting satellites.

Measurements taken directly from the sea surface with the help of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research supported the findings, as did air temperature trends recorded at Kuwait airport, the report said.

“Because the waters of Kuwait Bay are well mixed by the tides, measurements of the sea surface temperature can be used to access temperature trends over time in the bay as a whole,” Mr al Rashidi, said.

The report estimates that while 0.2 degrees of the total change can be attributed to global climate change, a rise of about 0.08 degrees has been caused by power and desalination plants on the coast.

Regional changes, including the discharge from the Shatt al Arab, the circulation of seawater within the Gulf, sand storms and the influence of the dominant north-westerly Shamal wind, are causing the rest.

Mr al Rashidi said: “The high water temperature leads to decreased oxygen and that will kill fish and lead to a loss of habitat such as mangroves, coral reefs and sea grasses.”

He said Kuwait already experienced an environmental catastrophe in 2001, when thousands of dead fish washed up on the shore, and at that time the recorded sea temperature was “more than 36°C”. Sea surface temperatures in the Gulf normally range between 20°C and 30°C.

The report says the increase is greatest during the early summer and least during the winter months. The temperature showed unusually high peaks in 1998 and 2003, which coincided with El Nino episodes: large-scale movements of warm water in the Pacific that affect the weather in many parts of the world.

The Gulf’s small volume – a maximum depth of 100 metres, against more than 200 metres in the Red Sea – makes it more prone to changes in temperature than many other bodies of water.

The increasing use of water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers for agriculture and power generation in Turkey, Syria and Iraq has stemmed the flow of fresh water into the Gulf from the north.

Mr al Rashidi said 58 per cent of the world’s desalination plants are located in the Arabian Gulf, which use seawater for cooling before dumping the heated water back into the sea.

At Kuwait’s fish market, a large hall lined with scores of stalls selling produce from all over the world, the pressure on local fish stocks is already being felt. Fresh fish netted locally used to dominate the sales but now boats increasingly unload catches from as far away as India and Egypt.

Ali Jassem, 37, is a Kuwaiti who has shopped at the market for 20 years. He said: “Kuwaiti fish is becoming more and more expensive because it is fresh and less abundant.

“When I started to come here, 90 per cent of the fish was local, but now we have Pakistani and Iranian – Kuwaiti fish make up maybe a quarter of what’s on display. Every year there is less and less Kuwaiti fish,” Mr Jassem said.

Suleiman Ali, 33, moved from Kerala in India to be a fishmonger in the market four years ago. He said his stall sells Indian and Saudi fish because “the local produce is too expensive – maybe double the price”. He said the lack of local fish is not hurting his business, because more Kuwaitis are turning to the cheaper imports.

While other factors such as globalisation or changes in eating habits might be at play for the decreasing proportion of Kuwaiti fish on sale at the market, Mr al Rashidi’s findings also point to exceptional changes in the local marine environment.

“The lesson is that temperature trends that we experience may be quite different from place to place due to variations in local and regional effects,” Mr al Rashidi said. “Each city in the Gulf should know that we are far from the global average. It’s a very important message.”

Source