The cruise will be from the 16th to the 24th of January on board of R/V Al Azizi (KAU vessel) heading to the Farasanbanks, where we will visit reefs, mangroves, seagrass meadows and beaches along the coastline and offshore. We will be 9 participants mainly from the Red Sea Research Center plus one from the Water Desalination and Reuse Center and two visitor professors from Greece. Different projects will be conducted including:

- research of new marine natural products for pharmaceutical and cosmesis purposes

- metabolism and population connectivity of giant clams

- plastic pollution monitoring and assessment of impacts on marine organisms

 

Activities will include diving for samples collection, visual census through transects, remote surveys through drone flights and experiments on board

  Beach litter monitoring through drone flights (credit: Dorte Krause-Jensen)  Plastic pollution in mangroves ( Photo credit: Cecilia Martin)                                               

A giant clam (Photo credit: Susann Rossbach)                                                 A transect for giant clam monitoring (credit: Janna Leigh Randle)