Along the coast of the Kingdom of Bahrain, the sea can appear deceptively calm. Beneath the surface, however, lies one of the most environmentally extreme marine ecosystems on Earth: a shallow Gulf where summer water temperatures can exceed 36°C, salinity levels regularly rise above global ocean averages, and decades of fishing and anthropogenic interventions have transformed marine habitats.

Despite those pressures, the Arabian Gulf still supports remarkable marine biodiversity, including whale sharks, hammerheads, rays and sawfish, which comprise some of the region’s most vulnerable species. Scientists estimate that more than 40 shark species and over 30 ray species inhabit Gulf waters, though many remain poorly studied. A 2022 regional assessment recorded 47 shark and ray species in the western Arabian Gulf alone, including six Critically Endangered, six Endangered and seven Vulnerable species. More than 4,000 individual sharks and rays were documented in fish market surveys between 2016 and 2020, with approximately 88 per cent caught using gillnets.

One of the central challenges facing shark and ray conservation in the Gulf is surprisingly simple: it is difficult to protect species that have never been comprehensively documented in the first place. In many parts of the region, scientists still lack reliable baseline data showing which species remain, where they are found, and how populations are changing over time.

That gap is precisely what Nuwat was created to address. Launched in Bahrain in 2023, the marine conservation initiative focuses on research, public participation and long-term biodiversity monitoring in Gulf waters. Supported by a grant from the Save Our Seas Foundation, the organisation is currently leading the development of Bahrain’s first shark and ray eDNA database — one of the first projects of its kind in the Kingdom. Environmental DNA, or eDNA, allows researchers to detect species through microscopic genetic material shed into seawater, including skin cells, mucus, scales or waste particles. In practical terms, researchers can collect a bottle of seawater from a reef, seagrass bed or coastal site and analyse it for traces of sharks and rays moving through the area. A single sample can reveal the presence of multiple species without a single animal being physically captured or even seen.

In a region where many shark and ray populations were never comprehensively documented to begin with, the implications are significant. The project is helping establish the first modern baseline records for species presence in Bahraini waters, creating a clearer picture not only of what survives in the Gulf, but where future conservation efforts may need to focus. Members of the organisation have also contributed to Bahrain’s Red List assessments, which document threatened species across the country and highlight mounting pressures on marine biodiversity.

That work increasingly extends beyond laboratories and research vessels. Citizen science initiatives associated with Nuwat encourage divers, fishers and members of the public to report shark and ray sightings, strandings and bycatch. Photographs submitted online can become part of regional databases tracking species distribution across the Gulf.

In some cases, documenting marine life means visiting fish markets directly. Nuwat’s FinSight Bahrain project, launched in 2025, expands that effort into local fish markets and landing sites, where volunteers and researchers photograph sharks and rays appearing in catches to help identify species, document bycatch and monitor fisheries pressure over time. In a region where long-term monitoring data remains limited, records collected through public participation can contribute to a growing scientific picture of which species are still present in Bahraini waters, including threatened sharks and rays that might otherwise pass undocumented.

The stakes extend beyond conservation alone. Healthy marine ecosystems support fisheries, coastal resilience and tourism economies, while sharks and rays play important ecological roles in maintaining balance within marine food webs. Across the wider region, marine wildlife tourism — including whale shark tourism in parts of the Sultanate of Oman — has also demonstrated the economic value of preserving biodiversity alongside more traditional coastal industries. Healthy marine habitats additionally support fish populations relied upon by coastal communities throughout the Gulf.

Over the past several decades, evidence has accumulated that shark and ray populations across the region have declined significantly. Around 73 million sharks are estimated to be killed globally each year, largely driven by the international fin trade, while roughly one quarter of shark and ray species worldwide are now threatened with extinction. In Bahrain, surveys conducted in 2012 described shark populations as “nearly depleted”, particularly among larger predatory species, such as tiger sharks, bull sharks and great hammerheads. Recovery is especially difficult because sharks and rays reproduce far more slowly than most fish species. Many sharks do not reach sexual maturity until between 7 and 15 years of age, while some species take far longer — the Greenland shark, for example, may not mature until around 150 years old. Gestation periods can last up to three years, females often reproduce only intermittently, and many species produce relatively small numbers of offspring at a time. Combined with the loss of shallow coastal nursery habitats, these biological traits mean depleted shark populations can take decades to recover from sustained fishing pressure. These pressures are compounded by broader environmental stress across the Gulf, including warming waters, intensive maritime activity and long-term habitat disturbance. Species already living close to their environmental limits are increasingly vulnerable to additional pressures, particularly in shallow coastal habitats that are important to fish and rays.

Nevertheless, the Arabian Gulf continues to produce surprises. Recent projects using eDNA and field observations have helped identify species presence in areas where data was previously sparse, while regional studies continue to document important habitats for threatened species, such as Whale shark and the critically endangered Longcomb sawfish. In 2018, sawfish were still being recorded near Bahrain despite severe declines across much of their historical range. Some of those habitats are now receiving increasing international recognition, with numerous areas in the Gulf having recently been identified as ISRAs — Important Shark and Ray Areas — under a global framework developed by the IUCN SSC Shark Specialist Group to identify habitats critical to the survival of threatened shark and ray species.

None of this guarantees recovery. Many shark and ray species in the Arabian Gulf remain threatened, while others are still too poorly understood to assess properly. The picture emerging from recent research is not of an empty sea, however. It is of a stressed one — still holding life, still capable of surprise, and increasingly observed by people determined to document and understand it before more is lost.

Sawsan Farooq Khalaf , Researcher in the Economic Studies Program