Dubai Municipality has reassured the public that the butterfly-like marine\ncreatures recently spotted on Dubai beaches are harmless and non-toxic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hailing from the Creseis Acicula species, the creatures belong to the\nfamily of sea butterflies, a sub-category of sea snails. Measuring between 7.15\nand 13.2 mm in length, the creatures\u2019 bodies are protected by a pointed needle-like\nshell. These organisms are not considered toxic and do not pose a threat to the\nsafety of beachgoers. However, they can cause discomfort as they can stick to\nthe body. The organisms usually die on the dry sand after the tide sweeps them\nto the shore. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Widely distributed in the world\u2019s oceans, the Creseis\nAcicula species is found mainly in warm waters. The creatures tend to appear in\ncoastal waters following changes in marine conditions such as storms and strong\nwinds, sudden changes in marine currents as well as sharp fluctuations in\ntemperature, salinity and food availability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the first time that the creatures have\nbeen found by the Municipality in such large numbers on the emirate\u2019s beaches.\nOn 15 May, large clusters of the remains of these organisms were found on Al\nShurouq Beach. On 25 May, they were first spotted live on Al Shurouq Beach, and\nto a lesser extent in a part of Jumeirah-3 Beach, while on 27 May, they were\nspotted in Jumeirah-1 Beach. Following monitoring on 31 May and on the morning\nof 1 June, they were not detected on public beaches except in the marine waters\noff Al Shurouq Beach outside the swimming area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Municipality stated that protecting the\nmarine environment and enhancing the safety and sustainability of marine\nresources and biodiversity is one of Dubai Municipality\u2019s key strategic\npriorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dubai Municipality has intensified environmental\ninspections in all public beaches in the emirate to monitor the extent of their\nspread on the emirate\u2019s coasts, and collect samples for analysis and study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Municipality has also intensified cleaning\noperations to remove any remnants of these organisms on the beaches, so that the\npublic can engage in beach activities safely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dubai Municipality has reassured the public that the butterfly-like marine creatures recently spotted on Dubai beaches are harmless and non-toxic. Hailing from the Creseis Acicula species, the creatures belong to the family of sea butterflies, a sub-category of sea snails. Measuring between 7.15 and 13.2 mm in length, the creatures\u2019 bodies are protected by a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34555,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34553\/revisions\/34555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uaebarq.ae\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}