JEDDAH: Four sharks died over the weekend on the shore of the Red Sea at the village of Al-Jimaiat, 400 km south of Makkah.
“These are not unusual cases. They happen during the course of the year,” said a number of fishermen, who did not want to be identified. They added that another batch of dead sharks were recently found on the beaches of Qunfudah.
Dr. Salim Marzouk Al-Harbi, chairman of the Maritime Studies Department at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, attributed the deaths to the pumping of raw sewage into the sea.
“This is one of the main causes of the death of fish in the Red Sea,” he said, adding that raw sewage contains deadly ammonia. He also cited the presence of poisonous seaweed and a lack of crustaceans (such as crabs, shrimps and lobsters which sharks rely on for food) to be the cause of deaths of sharks and other sea life. “Poisonous food reduces oxygen in the body of fish, causing immediate death,” he said.
Dr. Al-Harbi said cleaning operations undertaken by volunteers in Jeddah have not been effective. “We need to treat sewage waste before pumping it into the sea. We also need to reduce other pollutants, such as oil residues,” he said.
He added that seaweed has become a common problem, even in advanced countries like the US and Japan. He said seaweed is detrimental to maritime industries and fish farms.
