Oil pollution and Red Sea tourism lead the list

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Arabian Seas Expedition

Yellow Death: In 1996 scientists discovered a new malady, Yellow Band Disease, killing corals in the southern Persian Gulf off Abu Dhabi, UAE. Photo: Bernhard Reigl and Jan Korrubel

The United Arab Emirates has extensive offshore reefs, but like many of its Gulf neighbors it has lost mangroves to unplanned coastal development, and the resulting sedimentation has stressed corals. Spectacular oil spills are commonplace, usually coming from ships passing the Strait of Hormuz, the world's busiest waterway. In July 1997 a damaged tanker spilled thousands of tons of diesel fuel in a coral reef area; the year before that, it was crude oil sludge dumped illegally from another tanker. The UAE's largest oil spill occurred in 1994, when 16,000 tons of Iranian crude oil seriously damaged the country's eastern coastline and its fishing industry. And in 1996, scientists found a new threat to UAE corals: Yellow Band Disease, a previously unknown plague, is consuming corals in the southern Persian Gulf off Abu Dhabi.