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P24. Biological Survey of Al Zubarah, Qatar, UNESCO Buffer Zone, 2012 –
Fishes
Peter Rask Møller, Philippe Provençal, Jos Kielgast
Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100
Copenhagen Ø, Denmark
Email: pdrmoller@snm.ku.dk
Al Zubarah is a former pearl fishing settlement in northern Qatar. In 2013 it will be a new
UNESCO world heritage site. Extensive archeological excavations are being done, but knowledge
about the marine environment has remained unknown. The buffer zone contains a wide range of
habitats covering bottoms with sea grass, sand, mud, rocks, sea weed and small reefs of peal
oysters. The zone seems to be in a healthy environmental shape, although a few signs of human
impact were noted. No oil spills were observed in the water, in sharp contrast to the situation on
shore.
In order to provide a first overview of the fish fauna in the Al Zubarah buffer zone, we used multimesh
gill-net, baited traps, snorkelling and scuba diving. From 6-23 March 2012 a total of ca. 48
identified fish species in 33 families were observed, photographed and/ or caught within the buffer
zone. Most effective method was the night snorkelling. A total of 33 species were collected for
museum collections and tissue was sampled for DNA sequencing. A total of 35 species were UVphotographed.
The most diverse families were seabreams (Sparidae) with 5 species, followed by
stingrays (Dasyatidae), Blennies (Blennidae) and emperors (Lethrinidae) all with 3 species. Two
species of stingray (Himantura gerrardi and Himantura uarnak (Fig. 3) are considered Vulnerable
(VU), a shark Chiloscyllium arabicum (Fig. 2) and a labrid Halichoeres leptotaenia are considered
Near threatened (NT), a butterflyfish Chaetodon nigropunctatus and a angelfish Pomacanthus
maculosus are placed in the Least Concern (LC) category, whereas another stingray Pastinachus
sephen, a flathead Platycephalus indicus and a grouper Epinephelus tauvina are currently Data
Deficient (DD). More seasons need to be sampled in order to get at more complete species list.
Program 17. danske havforskermøde, 141