Mubarak Al-Kabeer Reserve

Mubarak Al-Kabeer Reserve is located on Boubyan Island on the western side of the Shatt Al-Arab in the north-western Gulf. The Site is flat and low, featuring shallow salt marshes and small lagoons. It is important as a staging post for migrating birds, as well as for hosting populations of breeding waterbirds. These include the world’s largest breeding colony of crab plover (Dromas ardeola) and colonies of swift terns (Thalasseus bergii), slender-billed gulls (Larus genei), herons, egrets and spoonbills. Cetaceans frequent the murky waters around the Site, including Indo-pacific humpback dolphins (Sousa chinensis), bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus), common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and finless porpoises (Neophocaena phocaenoides). The island is a major nursery area for many commercial fish species such as silver pomfret (Pampus argenteus), nagoor (Pomadasys kaakan) and croakers (Sciaenidae). The water channels are nursery grounds for shrimps and sea snakes such as the blue-banded sea snake (Hydrophis cyanocinctus), which visit in summer and feed on mudskippers.

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