Tubli Bay () (also known as the Gulf of Tubli) is a bay in the east of

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

, between

Bahrain Island Bahrain Island ( ''Jazīrah al-Baḥrayn''), also known as al-Awal Island and formerly as Bahrein, is the largest island within the archipelago of Bahrain, and forms the bulk of the country's land mass while hosting the majority of its population ...

and

Sitra Sitra ( or , ''As-Sitra''), also known as Sitrah or Sitra Island ( ), is an island in Bahrain situated approximately south of the capital, Manama, which is on Bahrain Island. History The island of Sitra has witnessed various conflicts. One ...

island. The body of water is directly south of the

Manama Manama ( ', Bahrani Arabic, Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and List of cities in Bahrain, largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 297,502 as of 2012. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is ...

peninsula. The island of Nabih Saleh lies in the bay.

Environment

The area was known for its rich marine and bird life, and the

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

forests around its borders. The mangroves thrived on the run-off of water of freshwater springs after it passed through farms into the bay.

Wildlife

The bay is a major breeding ground for

shrimp A shrimp (: shrimp (American English, US) or shrimps (British English, UK)) is a crustacean with an elongated body and a primarily Aquatic locomotion, swimming mode of locomotion – typically Decapods belonging to the Caridea or Dendrobranchi ...

and fishes. It is also a stopover for several migratory bird species. The bay has been designated an

Important Bird Area An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations. IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...

(IBA) by

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding i ...

because it supports significant passage or wintering populations of

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

s and

gull Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gulls were placed ...

s, including

grey Grey (more frequent in British English) or gray (more frequent in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning that it has no chroma. It is the color of a cloud-covered s ...

, Kentish and Siberian sand plovers, and broad-billed sandpipers, dunlins and slender-billed gulls. Other wintering species include little egrets, common ringed plovers,

little stint The little stint (''Calidris minuta'' or ''Erolia minuta'') is a very small wader. It breeds in arctic Europe and Asia, and is a long-distance migrant, wintering south to Africa and south Asia. It occasionally is a vagrant to North America an ...

s, ruddy turnstones, and Pallas's and

black-headed gull The black-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus ridibundus'') is a small gull that breeds in much of the Palearctic in Europe and Asia, and also locally in smaller numbers in coastal eastern Canada. Most of the population is migratory and winters fu ...

Conservation

Tubli Bay has suffered from illegal

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

environmental pollution ''Environmental Pollution'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal covering the biological, health, and ecological effects of environmental pollution. It was established in 1980 as two parts: ''Environmental Pollution Series A: Ecological and Biologi ...

and decreasing freshwater supply from springs. Land reclamation has reduced the size from 25 km² in the 1960s to just 11 km² today. The mangroves that used to exist along much of the coast have been reduced to just a few small patches at Ras Sanad and Ras Tubli. In 1997, Tubli Bay was added to the list of Ramsar wetlands of international importance.About the Ramsar Convention
/ref>

References

External links

Tubli Bay 'a lost heritage'

Gulf Daily News The ''Gulf Daily News'' is an English-language local newspaper published in the Kingdom of Bahrain by Dar Akhbar Al Khaleej. The paper, which is one of six daily newspapers in Bahrain, calls itself "The Voice of Bahrain". History The ''Gulf ...

, 25 March 2007
Bridge project 'blow to Tubli Bay'

, 14 April 2008 Bodies of water of Bahrain Important Bird Areas of Bahrain Ramsar sites in Bahrain Bays of the Indian Ocean {{Bahrain-geo-stub