Environmental Implications of a Massive Oil Spill and

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most severe during winter months when a natural cycle of bleaching
occurs.

Patchy distributions of sea grass beds and mangroves occur all along the
Saudi Arabian coastline, in the channels between Saudi Arabia and Balirain,
and between Bahrain and Qatar. These grassbeds provide important
habitats for several species including the commercially harvested penaeid
shrimp. Young green turtles feed on these seagrasses. While seagrasses
could suffer from an impact of fresh crude oil, they have generally quickly
recovered after past spills. In 1970, a 100,000 barrel oil spill occurred in
Tarut Bay, an area of around 400 sq. km. Tarut Bay contains mud flats,
grassbeds, black mangroves and shrimp spawnmg areas. The spill extended
from shore to shore and left large tarmats on the beaches. Even ten years
later, surveys of oil on the beach showed that this area was more
contaminated than the average Saudi shoreline. There are, however, still
living mangroves and an active local fishing industry in this area.

The Dugong, a large manatee-like marine mammal, lives and feeds along
the Gulf coast. It ranges all along the Indian Ocean shoreline. Dugong
mate m February and March, in shallow water, with a gestation period of 1
year. They have naked bodies, which implies metabolic heat is controlled
by blubber. Thus they may be more like pinnipeds than otters. A more
serious threat may be physical damage to unseen animals due to boat
operations. During the massive and chronic Nowruz spill in 1983, there
was some impact on them, but recent observations have shown a stronger
than expected population with 900 animals recorded in ope sighting in the
Balirain region.

There may be some risk of damage to recently hatched turtle populations if
there is heavy oiling of shorelines during spring on several islands qffshore
of Saudi Arabia but the risk of significant ffama~e to adults is low. - The
green turtle occurs in the Gulf throughout the year, feeding in seagrass
beds. Green turtles are common in Tarut Bay, and often caught in shrimp
trawls. The populations mainly breed on Karan, Jana, Kurayan, and
Jurayd Islands, less so on other islands. Karan Island is the breeding area
for 80% of the Gulf green turtle population. Mainland breeding success is
low. Adult and half-grown green turtles are common in local seagrass
pastures, between Safaniya and alVqayr, but most green turtles migrate far
beyond this coastline. They are very common and harvested in the
Southern Gulf to the west coast of Pakistan and India, but may not breed
there now. Thus, the breeding populations of the western Gulf may be the
source 6f animals as far east as India.


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