Desert Seas

25 Facts

1. The Two Seas reach around the dessert Peninsula of Arabia like two arms.
2. Millions of years ago the great big dessert of Saudi Arabia was underwater, on the seafloor a
deep compost build up, it remains hidden beneath the sand as oil.
3. The wealth of a long-gone sea now fuels our world.
4. 10,000 years ago the Gulf was a swampy floodplain when the sea level rose it disappeared
under water.
5. The Red Sea was formed much earlier as Africa and Arabia's tectonic plates pulled apart
leaving a chasm a mile deep now filled with seawater.
6. The edges fringed with coral disappeared into the depths.
7. Five-centimeter wrasse groomed sweet lips even combing the tender gills, they eat any
parasites and dead skin as a reward for thier trouble.
8. A moray eel the two and a half metre dragon of the reef is attended by shrimps; they enter
the jaws of death to keep razor-sharp teeth clean in exchange for any morsels they find no
opportunity is wasted however desperate it may seem.
9. Damselfish hide in anemone protected by tentacles that will paralyze other fish.
10. An anemone can close and the local clownfish is finding his home a tight squeeze.
11. This underwater community lies along shores of ancient human settlements.
12. The middle east is the birthplace of our civilization
13. Over 4,000 years ago the first cities rose here the cradle of mathematics, astronomy and
medicine.
14. If the Garden of Eden its rivers flowed anywhere it was into the Gulf.
15. Ancient Mesopotamia was on the northern shoreline with Persia to the east.
16. The two sister Seas are very different the Gulf shiny hides its wealth the aging Red Sea
fronds extravagance.
17. A reef is built by tiny animals, Coral polyps construct limestone tower blocks protection
against fish and crabs.
18. Microscopic plants algae live in the polyps and convert sunlight to sugar which feeds the
coral.
19. The edge falls away and any nutrients from the reef fall away - like food tumbling off the
edge of a table; tiny mouths try and grab a meal as it sinks into the dark unexplored depths a
mile below.
20. The Gulf is a hot shallow sea hardly an enticing destination yet here a quarter of a million
Socotra cormorants three-quarters of the world population. They search for schools of bait fish
and rest in rafts.
21. Socotra cormorants breed here in winter on isolated island, featherless chicks shiver each
morning.
22. Sand and dirt are blown into the sea as wind becomes sandstorms, the Gulf water become
a foggy soup.
23. Out of adversity a miracle the dust fertilizes the sea grass prairies with nitrogen, iron and
phosphorus.
24. In February and March green turtles begin Their journey to their breeding grounds.
25. Across the Gulf sand storms calls "shamals" carry millions of tons of nutrients into the water
plankton bloom and feed everything from cauliflower, jellies to fish.