First Middle-Eastern Cabled Seabed Observatory: Oman Deployment Provides Insights Into Long-Term Arabian Sea Environmental Conditions

As a result of its position at the northern Margin of the Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Oman is a dynamic marine environment driven by the seasonal extremes of regional monsoon events. Aside from environmental perturbations, the Guff of Oman is subject to real and potential pollution from the heavy traffic of large oil tankers entering and leaving the Arabian Gulf. Ballast water discharges, spills, and other effluents associated with such traffic are a continuing concern for the Sultanate of Oman, whose pristine Al Batinah coast is under development as a national resource for fisheries and an emerging recreational industry. The Sultanate of Oman has a vital interest in preserving and protecting the Al Batinah coast and the deployment of oceanographic sensors is providing essential data necessary to monitor existing conditions as well as providing the basis for a prediction of environmental impacts in the event of accidental release of substances which might threaten the coastal habitat. We fielded an array of instruments in 2005 to record temperature, salinity, oxygen, turbidity, current speed and direction, leading the way to a Middle Eastern data collection system in a vital region not yet studied in temporal detail. These data form the basis for environmental assessments to measure seasonal variations associated with monsoonal perturbations. The array was positioned to intercept signals from any release from the Arabian Gulf traffic, as well as monitor parameters essential to water quality assessments meaningful to fisheries research (salinity, temperature, oxygen, etc.). It provides detailed information on water motion and density; both critical to the modeling and prediction of spill behavior. Four seabed nodes are connected to base arrays containing the full suite of sensors mentioned above, A fiber optic cable connects the nodes to the shore station where the data collection, storage and early analyses on the health and performance of the system are constantly mon- itored. The cabled observatory extends 60 kilometers northeast across the Al Batinah coastal shelf, providing real-time oceanographic data that monitors the health and potential threats from natural and possible anthropogenic causes.