The Oman fish biodiversity trip I am currently doing is nearly over. We spent the last days in a workshop at the Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat. The workshop focus was on “Bridging the gap between marine resource managers and research institutions in Oman and Australia”. Besides our team, the workshop was attended by Omani researchers and government officials, international researchers working in the region, and even by marine students from the university.

With such a varied group of attending researchers and presenters, talks were bound to be interesting and go beyond the work I am familiar with. The first day focused on seas around Oman, its diversity and natural history. Since this was my first visit to Oman and I know very little about its marine life, there was a lot of interesting new information to absorb.

The Omani seas are fascinating for many reasons, but one of the things that really stuck with me was how big the environmental differences are in a relatively small area. The north of Oman has seas that get very hot, with a high salinity and a very different fauna and flora than the southern areas. The south of Oman has coral reefs, but also has a strong cold upwelling each summer. This upwelling is so strong that temporary kelp forests grow here in summer! I did not get to dive there this trip and the kelp has already disappeared this time of the year, but it would be fascinating to come back and dive in the Salalah area.

The second day of the workshop moved from natural history to new monitoring techniques, and explored some of the regions nearby Oman. There was a thought-provoking (but sad) talk about the heavy impact of coral bleaching in the Arabian Gulf. Water temperatures in the summer of 2017 reached up to 36°C, and some areas lost more than 90% of coral cover! Our team members also presented some of their personal work, Joey talked about eDNA, Darren about monitoring biodiversity in the Red Sea, and Chris talked about how cryptobenthic fishes could be used a sensitive measure of changes in reef health.

In an interesting discussion afterwards, it became very clear that collaborating across different countries is more effective than just working as a loner. When experts in certain fields can share their work and skills with researchers that may not have the infrastructure or cannot get the training in the country they work, everyone benefits. Local researchers often have a very extensive knowledge and valuable insights that visiting researchers just don’t have. As visitors, we can offer a new perspective and stimulate new ideas to help push the boundaries of knowledge.

People like Joey and Alyssa, who stimulate these kind of collaborations, are the ones that (in my humble opinion) will make the biggest difference to marine science. Not just to improve our understanding of the ocean, but also to improve how we can sustainable use the ocean, or protect the areas and species that need it most.