Ruaa Centre Launches Training Course on Monitoring and Protecting Marine Turtles in the Gulf of Aden

Today, Sunday, Ruaa Centre for Strategic Studies, Consultancy, and Training launched a training course in the Faqam area titled “Mechanisms for Monitoring and Protecting Marine Turtles During the Nesting Season in the Gulf of Aden”. The course is part of the Save Marine Turtles in the Gulf of Aden project, supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and the Small Grants Programme (SGP), in cooperation with the Office of the General Authority for Environmental Protection.

At the opening, Dr. Jaklin Mansour Al-Battani, Head of Ruaa Centre, delivered a welcoming speech to the participants, emphasizing the importance of the course in raising environmental awareness and building participants’ capacities in marine turtle conservation, highlighting that these species are endangered and play a vital role in maintaining marine ecological balance.

Dr. Al-Battani also discussed the project’s role in strengthening partnerships with relevant entities and environmental stakeholders, noting that this course is part of a series of activities aimed at protecting marine biodiversity along the Gulf of Aden coasts. She expressed her hope that the course would provide participants with maximum practical and scientific benefit and that its outcomes would positively impact marine turtle protection efforts.

The course is led by Dr. Salem Bassis, Professor of Zoology at the University of Aden, who on the first day provided a scientific overview of the marine ecosystem and its components, the importance of marine turtles within coastal ecosystems, as well as the challenges they face during the nesting season and the best methods to monitor and protect them.

The four-day training course includes both theoretical and practical sessions aimed at enhancing monitoring skills and adopting best environmental practices for the protection of marine turtles along the Gulf of Aden coasts.