Janan Research Vessel kicked off its research journey on Sunday to study the state of marine environment in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) within the program of monitoring the marine environment of the State of Qatar, implemented by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), represented by the Monitoring and Environmental Laboratory Department, in cooperation with the Environmental Science Center of Qatar University.

The three-day sea trip is being conducted by a research team consisting of a number of specialists and researchers in the field of monitoring the quality of the marine environment at the Department and Qatar University.

Ali Jassim Al Kuwait from the Monitoring and Environmental Laboratory Department underlined the keenness of the Department to launch this research trip on board of Janan Research Vessel despite the coronavirus pandemic, noting that the preparation for this phase of the program required a great effort.

He noted the importance of this trip in monitoring the latest biological, chemical or physical variables and indicators of the state of the marine environment and comparing them to the previous years.

He added that the trip will collect samples from within the country's marine waters and from different depths and away from the shore, unlike the previous programs which were implemented near the shore, which will give accurate and excellent results for the marine condition, in addition to studying the environmental elements of soil and marine waters, whether shallow or deep regional coastal waters in locations within the borders of the State of Qatar.

Al Kuwari explained that the trip aims to collect sediment and marine water samples from the specified sites to measure the most prominent variables such as water temperature, salinity, saturated dissolved oxygen and turbidity. Samples will also be collected by nets to monitor phytoplankton and zooplankton along the depth of the water column from the bottom to the surface in order to classify them and identify their diversity and determine the biological fertility and productivity of the Qatari marine environment.

Janan Research Vessel is equipped with the latest equipment and tools specialized in the field of marine research and has a specialized laboratory to examine materials and samples immediately, as well as a qualified technical staff with high experience in this field and a specialized research team from the Monitoring and Environmental Laboratory Department.

(QNA)