Meet The Cover Conservationist is a recurring SEVENSEAS feature that spotlights inspiring and influential people working at the forefront of ocean conservation.

Beyond the research papers, campaigns, and headlines, this series offers a more personal look at the people behind the work, exploring what drives them, challenges them, and keeps them hopeful for the future of our ocean. If there’s a conservationist you’d love to see featured on a future cover, we invite you to submit a short nomination (around 250 words) to info@sevenseasmedia.org. We receive many outstanding submissions, and while not all can be selected for publication, each is carefully considered.

Below you’ll find the merciless interrogation designed to give readers insight into our conservationist’s professional journey and the human side of life in ocean conservation. We only ask fearlessly candid, no-holds-barred questions, so get ready for a brutally honest, nail-biting interview.

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1. To get our readers acquainted, why don’t you tell us just a little about yourself, what motivates you and what you are working on.

Jacqueline: I’m a second-year master’s degree student in the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography. My research focuses on water quality and aquaculture, specifically investigating how water quality and gear type affect oyster growth in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. This work is driven by my interest to collaborate with oyster farmers and conduct research that benefits the aquaculture industry.

2. What was the moment or influence that first pulled you toward ocean conservation? Tell us about that.

Jacqueline: During college, I spent a summer along the coast of Maine assisting with lobster and scallop research projects. That experience showed me how closely science, industry, and coastal communities are connected. Working on the waterfront and interacting directly with fishermen helped me see that ocean conservation isn’t just about ecosystems; it’s also about supporting the people and livelihoods that depend on them.

3. Was there a specific place, species, experience, mentor, job, or challenge that shaped your career path?

Jacqueline: My first job after earning my bachelor’s degree was on Catalina Island, California, where I worked as a marine science instructor. It was a dynamic, adventurous, and rewarding job, one that continues to impact me today. I learned how to be an educator, communicate science, adapt quickly, and find the fun in challenging moments.

4. How do science and storytelling intersect in your work?

Jacqueline: The water quality dataset from my project helps oyster farmers understand seasonal trends in Narragansett Bay. By pairing quantitative data with observations from oyster farmers, we can tell a more complete story about what works, guide future research, and strengthen Rhode Island’s aquaculture industry through collaboration.

5. What’s one misconception people often have about your field?

Jacqueline: One common misconception people have about oceanography is that it entails just being out on a boat conducting field work. A lot of the work happens behind a computer, analyzing data, writing, securing funding, and collaborating across disciplines. It’s an ever-changing balance of field, lab, and desk work.

6. What part of your work feels most urgent today?

Jacqueline: Continued collaboration feels especially urgent, specifically uplifting the voices of industry members, such as oyster farmers, to identify research questions that are most relevant and impactful.

7. What achievement are you most proud of, even if few people know about it?

Jacqueline: I decided to apply to graduate school nine years after earning my undergraduate degree. Leaving the workforce and returning to student life was a big shift, and I’m proud to have taken that step. While I’m older than many of my peers, I wouldn’t change my timeline. Professional (and personal) growth isn’t linear, and there are infinite ways to get to where you want to go.

8. What keeps you going when conservation feels overwhelming?

Jacqueline: Being in graduate school, I’m surrounded by a large community of people who are deeply motivated. Being surrounded by that energy and commitment helps me stay focused, and reminds me that change is possible, even when progress feels slow.

9. What’s something the public rarely sees about how conservation really works?

Jacqueline: One thing the public rarely sees is just how complex and unpredictable conservation science can be. There are countless variables, including weather, mechanical issues, staffing, and funding, that we navigate every day. Carrying out research often means constantly adjusting and getting creative.

10. What’s one hard truth about ocean conservation we need to face?

Jacqueline: Climate change and environmental stressors disproportionately impact marginalized and coastal communities. Their voices and needs are often overlooked, yet they are on the frontlines of these challenges. Effective conservation requires listening to these communities, gathering their perspectives, and developing real solutions that will protect future generations.

11. What advice would you give your younger self entering this field?

Jacqueline: Everyone around you has something to teach you. Take the time to listen, ask questions, and build genuine connections.

12. Where do you realistically hope your work will be in 5 to 10 years?

Jacqueline: While my master’s research is ending, I hope that future research in Rhode Island continues to expand and support sustainable aquaculture. I’d love to see more state funding for projects that benefit both oysters and kelp, stronger partnerships between researchers and industry, and initiatives such as an experimental aquaculture farm.

13. What innovation excites you most in ocean conservation?

Jacqueline: I’m excited to see how aquaculture can become more “climate-ready.” For example, breeding or selecting oyster strains that are resilient to warming waters and ocean acidification could help farmers adapt to changing conditions.

14. Ocean sunrise or sunset? Any reason why?

Jacqueline: Sunrise, preferably viewed from a surfboard.

15. If you could be any marine animal, what would you be?

Jacqueline: Humpback whale. You can’t beat the ability to echolocate.

16. Coffee or tea (or what else?) in the field?

Jacqueline: Matcha latte.

17. Most unexpected or interesting place your work has taken you?

Jacqueline: I led marine conservation programs in the Dominican Republic for a summer. We partnered with local nonprofits on coral and mangrove restoration. It was interesting to see conservation happening in a different context. I loved learning about different approaches and realizing how much we can share and learn from one another across communities and countries.

18. One book, film, or documentary everyone should experience?

Jacqueline: Blue Planet 1 and 2.

19. What does a perfect day off look like?

Jacqueline: A bike ride to the beach, body surfing in warm summer waves, and low tide sea glass hunting.

20. One word you associate with the future of the ocean?

Jacqueline: Collaboration.

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• – Meet Dr Enrico Gennari, the January Cover Conservationist

Editor’s Note: Why We Are Featuring Iran Now

Iran is once again dominating headlines.

From widespread public demonstrations that surged across Iran in late 2025 into early this year, to the current escalation and the breaking of war, the country is being discussed globally in the context of politics, conflict, and human suffering. The loss of life and instability unfolding are real and devastating. Nothing in this feature is intended to diminish that reality.

But there is something else that often goes unspoken.

For years, inside and outside of environmental circles, people have quietly asked me a question. Sometimes with curiosity. Sometimes with hesitation. Sometimes almost with guilt.

“What is actually there?”

They were referring to biodiversity.

In today’s world, there is pressure to already know. When the breadth of human knowledge appears to sit at our fingertips, asking basic questions can feel uncomfortable. If a place overlaps with your professional field or your moral concern, you are expected to understand it fully.

Curiosity, however, should never carry shame.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we see questions as bridges. When a region becomes defined only by conflict, it becomes even more important to remember that it is also defined by landscapes, species, ecosystems, culture, and people who have lived in relationship with nature for millennia.

Iran is not only a geopolitical flashpoint. It is a country of vast mountain ranges, ancient forests, wetlands, deserts, coral communities, migratory flyways, and one of the most strategically significant marine corridors in the world. It sits at the intersection of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, connecting ecosystems across Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean.

It is home to coastal communities whose fishing traditions stretch back centuries, to wetlands that host migratory birds crossing continents, and to marine systems that sustain life far beyond their shorelines.

This feature has been in development for some time. In light of current events, we believe it is important to move forward thoughtfully and with care.

Education is not a distraction from suffering. It is part of long term resilience.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we promote education and peace across cultures and living in harmony with nature. We believe that understanding biodiversity can humanize places that are otherwise reduced to headlines. Conservation, at its best, transcends politics and builds shared responsibility for the natural world.

In the articles that follow, we explore the geography of Iran, its terrestrial biodiversity, its migratory importance, and its ocean and coastal ecosystems. We touch on traditional fishing cultures, current pressures, conservation challenges, and the organizations working to protect what remains.

As always, we are not here to simplify complexity. We are here to make space for informed curiosity and careful understanding.

In moments of conflict, it can feel easier to look away. We choose instead to look closer, and to recognize that ecological systems persist regardless of political borders.

This story is developing rapidly. Details may shift as the situation evolves. Last verified: March 3, 2026.

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The headlines are dominated by oil prices, geopolitical brinkmanship, and military escalation. But below the waterline of the Persian Gulf, a quieter catastrophe is taking shape, one that will outlast any ceasefire.

The Persian Gulf is not the barren petrochemical corridor that its reputation might suggest. It is a semi-enclosed sea of roughly 241,000 square kilometres, averaging just 35 metres in depth, connected to the wider Indian Ocean only through the 56-kilometre-wide Strait of Hormuz. Within this shallow, hypersaline basin lives a marine community that has adapted to conditions most ocean species could not survive: summer surface temperatures regularly exceeding 35°C, salinity levels above 45 PSU, and winter cooling that can plunge below 18°C. The organisms that thrive here are not merely surviving. They are demonstrating resilience strategies that climate scientists around the world are studying with increasing urgency.

Approximately 60 species of reef-building coral have been documented in the Gulf, including the endemic Acropora arabensis, found nowhere else on Earth. These corals withstand water temperatures of up to 36°C, well beyond the 32°C threshold that triggers bleaching in most tropical reefs. Researchers have increasingly turned to Persian Gulf coral populations as living laboratories for understanding how reef organisms might adapt to a warming planet. The Gulf also supports the world’s second-largest population of dugongs, after northern Australia, with an estimated 7,500 individuals grazing on seagrass beds along the coasts of Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Over 700 species of fish, populations of hawksbill and green sea turtles, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, whale sharks, and migratory seabird colonies all depend on this ecosystem.

The Immediate Threats

The environmental risks now facing this ecosystem are layered and compounding.

Oil contamination is the most visible concern. At least three commercial tankers have been struck by projectiles, with one confirmed ablaze and producing thick plumes of black smoke near Omani waters. A burning tanker does not simply release crude oil; it generates a toxic cocktail of partially combusted hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and particulate matter that settles across surrounding waters. With more than 150 laden tankers now anchored in open Gulf waters, the risk of collision, grounding, or further military targeting grows with each passing day. The shallow depth of the Gulf, averaging just 36 metres, means that spilled oil reaches the seafloor and coastal habitats far more quickly than in open ocean environments.

The sinking of at least nine Iranian warships introduces a different category of pollution. Sunken military vessels carry bunker fuel, hydraulic oils, lubricants, and munitions, all of which corrode and leach into surrounding waters over years and decades. A 2023 IUCN brief estimated that globally, over 8,500 shipwrecks are at risk of leaking approximately six billion gallons of oil. The Persian Gulf’s warm, shallow conditions accelerate corrosion, meaning these newly sunken warships could begin releasing contaminants faster than wrecks in colder, deeper waters.

Underwater noise pollution from military operations, including sonar, detonations, and sustained engine activity from hundreds of anchored vessels, adds biological stress. Marine mammals such as dugongs and dolphins rely on acoustic communication for feeding, mating, and navigation. Prolonged noise disruption can displace populations from critical habitats, with consequences that persist long after the sound stops.

Reports of potential mine-laying by Iranian forces introduce yet another dimension. Naval mines are indiscriminate by design; they threaten not only vessels but also the seabed itself, disturbing sediment and destroying benthic habitats when detonated. GPS jamming, confirmed across the region, increases the likelihood of navigational accidents among the hundreds of ships now attempting to shelter in place.

History’s Warning

The Persian Gulf carries the scars of previous conflicts. During the 1991 Gulf War, an estimated 4 to 11 million barrels of crude oil were deliberately released into its waters, covering more than 600 kilometres of Saudi coastline. Research conducted by Jacqueline Michel in 2010 found that oil had penetrated up to 50 centimetres into Gulf sediments and remained detectable 12 years after the spill. A 2017 study by Joydas et al. found “alarming levels” of hydrocarbons persisting in secluded bay areas more than 25 years later. While fish and bird populations showed encouraging recovery by 1994, the long-term contamination of sediments and coastal habitats tells a more complicated story.

The Gulf ecosystem did recover from 1991, a testament to its remarkable resilience. But it recovered into a world with fewer stressors. Today, the same ecosystem faces compounding pressures from coastal development, desalination plant discharge, climate-driven temperature extremes, and chronic oil pollution from routine shipping. A 2024 review published in Marine Pollution Bulletin found that 63.5% of the Gulf’s key habitats and species remain “data-deficient,” while 21.2% show documented decline. The margin for absorbing another major environmental shock has narrowed considerably.

What Comes Next

The environmental consequences of this crisis will not be determined by the conflict’s duration alone, but by what happens when it ends. After 1991, clean-up efforts focused almost exclusively on oil recovery from the water’s surface, while coastal habitats were largely neglected. If history offers any instruction, it is that the environmental response must begin alongside the military and diplomatic response, not after it.

International bodies, including the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME) and the International Maritime Organization, will need to coordinate rapid environmental assessment once conditions allow. Monitoring of coral communities, seagrass beds, and dugong populations should be prioritized, alongside sediment sampling near tanker anchorage sites and sunken vessel locations.

The Persian Gulf’s marine life has survived environmental extremes that would have destroyed ecosystems elsewhere. It has endured the largest deliberate oil spill in history and emerged, battered but functional. Whether it can absorb another round of military trauma on top of everything the 21st century has already thrown at it is a question that marine scientists are watching with deep concern, and one that the rest of us should be paying attention to as well.

Written by: Junior Thanong Aiamkhophueng

Attribution: This article draws on marine biodiversity research published in Marine Pollution Bulletin (2024) on habitat status across the Persian Gulf; peer-reviewed ecological analysis from PMC on critical research needs for Gulf coral reef ecosystems (Feary et al., 2014); EBSCO Research’s overview of the Persian Gulf ecosystem including dugong populations and endemic coral species; the IUCN’s 2023 issues brief on marine pollution from sunken vessels; ScienceDirect review of habitat and organism status across six Gulf countries; gCaptain and Windward Maritime Intelligence reporting on vessel attacks and anchorage patterns; France 24 and Al Jazeera coverage of mine-laying risks and GPS jamming; historical oil spill research by Jacqueline Michel (2010) on sediment penetration and Joydas et al. (2017) on long-term hydrocarbon persistence; CNN’s 2010 retrospective on 1991 Gulf War oil spill recovery; Wikipedia’s compiled entry on the Gulf War oil spill; and Maritime Education’s profile of Persian Gulf marine habitats and biodiversity. Persian Gulf coral reef satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory. For further reading, visit the IUCN Marine Programme, the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME), and NASA Earth Observatory.

Editor’s Note: Why We Are Featuring Iran Now

Iran is once again dominating headlines.

From widespread public demonstrations that surged across Iran in late 2025 into early this year, to the current escalation and the breaking of war, the country is being discussed globally in the context of politics, conflict, and human suffering. The loss of life and instability unfolding are real and devastating. Nothing in this feature is intended to diminish that reality.

But there is something else that often goes unspoken.

For years, inside and outside of environmental circles, people have quietly asked me a question. Sometimes with curiosity. Sometimes with hesitation. Sometimes almost with guilt.

“What is actually there?”

They were referring to biodiversity.

In today’s world, there is pressure to already know. When the breadth of human knowledge appears to sit at our fingertips, asking basic questions can feel uncomfortable. If a place overlaps with your professional field or your moral concern, you are expected to understand it fully.

Curiosity, however, should never carry shame.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we see questions as bridges. When a region becomes defined only by conflict, it becomes even more important to remember that it is also defined by landscapes, species, ecosystems, culture, and people who have lived in relationship with nature for millennia.

Iran is not only a geopolitical flashpoint. It is a country of vast mountain ranges, ancient forests, wetlands, deserts, coral communities, migratory flyways, and one of the most strategically significant marine corridors in the world. It sits at the intersection of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, connecting ecosystems across Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean.

It is home to coastal communities whose fishing traditions stretch back centuries, to wetlands that host migratory birds crossing continents, and to marine systems that sustain life far beyond their shorelines.

This feature has been in development for some time. In light of current events, we believe it is important to move forward thoughtfully and with care.

Education is not a distraction from suffering. It is part of long term resilience.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we promote education and peace across cultures and living in harmony with nature. We believe that understanding biodiversity can humanize places that are otherwise reduced to headlines. Conservation, at its best, transcends politics and builds shared responsibility for the natural world.

In the articles that follow, we explore the geography of Iran, its terrestrial biodiversity, its migratory importance, and its ocean and coastal ecosystems. We touch on traditional fishing cultures, current pressures, conservation challenges, and the organizations working to protect what remains.

As always, we are not here to simplify complexity. We are here to make space for informed curiosity and careful understanding.

In moments of conflict, it can feel easier to look away. We choose instead to look closer, and to recognize that ecological systems persist regardless of political borders.

This story is developing rapidly. Details may shift as the situation evolves. Last verified: March 3, 2026.

---

Iran sits at the center of a fast moving regional war that has already spilled into the maritime domain. Attacks affecting commercial shipping, electronic interference with navigation signals, and heightened risk to seafarers, alongside international warnings, diplomatic activity, and emergency maritime guidance addressing commercial shipping safety. This article is not about the conflict itself, but to write about Iranian coastal ecosystems we must acknowledge the immediate reality that the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman are currently under exceptional strain, and that ecological harm can escalate quickly when navigation, port operations, and safety at sea are compromised.

That is precisely why biodiversity deserves attention now. Iran’s living landscapes, from ancient temperate forests to mangrove channels and coral communities, are not a side story. They are the fabric that sustains food systems, coastal livelihoods, and cultural identity. They are also a record of resilience in a region where climate stress, water scarcity, and rapid coastal development have been reshaping ecosystems for decades.

Iran’s total area is often cited at roughly 1.65 million square kilometers, with the World Bank reporting land area of 1,622,500 square kilometers for 2023. The country spans sharp ecological gradients: the Caspian coast in the north, the Zagros and Alborz mountain systems, arid interior plateaus, and two very different southern marine frontiers, the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. This geographic spread helps explain why Iran features prominently in national and international biodiversity planning, and why conservation challenges vary so dramatically across regions. Iran’s national biodiversity strategy and action plan, submitted under the Convention on Biological Diversity, lays out the country’s own framing of pressures and priorities, from habitat loss and water stress to the need for stronger monitoring and management capacity.

Protected areas offer one useful, if imperfect, lens on how much land is being set aside for nature. Using a standardized indicator based on the World Database on Protected Areas, the World Bank reports terrestrial protected areas at about 8.6 percent of Iran’s land area in 2024. On paper, that number may sound substantial. On the ground, protection effectiveness depends on funding, enforcement, and community legitimacy, and those are harder variables to measure, especially during periods of economic constraint and heightened political tension.

To understand Iran’s coastal biodiversity, it helps to start with two pieces of context that sit inland but shape the seas. The first is the northern forest belt. The Hyrcanian Forests, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, represent a rare temperate broadleaf forest system with deep evolutionary history and high plant diversity. UNESCO notes the antiquity of these forests and documents thousands of vascular plant species, along with significant bird and mammal richness. Forest integrity matters for the coast because watersheds and rivers regulate sediment, nutrients, and pollutants that end up in deltas, lagoons, and nearshore nurseries.

The second is migratory biodiversity, which is tightly linked to wetlands. Iran is one of the countries most closely associated with the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which was adopted in the Iranian city of Ramsar in 1971. Iran’s country profile under Ramsar lists 27 Ramsar sites covering 1,494,371 hectares. These wetlands are not only local biodiversity reservoirs, they are stepping stones for migratory birds across Eurasia, and they connect inland water decisions to coastal fisheries and estuarine health.

Wetlands also reveal how biodiversity can unravel when hydrology collapses. Lake Urmia, once among the world’s great hypersaline lakes, has experienced severe drying over recent decades. A 2024 peer reviewed study in Bird Conservation International documents major consequences for waterbird assemblages, linking long term ecological change to declining water availability and rising salinity conditions. This inland story matters for a marine and coastal article because it illustrates a broader theme across Iran and the wider region: biodiversity is often limited less by what species could live there, and more by whether water, habitat connectivity, and governance can sustain them.

Southern seas and coastal habitats

Iran’s southern coastline stretches along two connected but ecologically distinct marine systems. The Persian Gulf is shallow and naturally extreme, with high salinity and large seasonal temperature swings. These conditions shape everything from coral survival thresholds to fish distribution, and they amplify the stakes of climate warming. The Gulf of Oman, opening toward the Arabian Sea, is more oceanic, with deeper waters and different circulation patterns, and it links Iran’s coast to broader Indian Ocean dynamics.

Across both southern seas, four habitat types carry disproportionate weight for biodiversity and fisheries productivity: mangroves, seagrass meadows, coral communities, and intertidal flats and estuaries. When these habitats are intact and connected, they function as nurseries and feeding grounds that support coastal fish, invertebrates, birds, and megafauna. When they are fragmented, the loss cascades through food webs and into human livelihoods.

Mangroves are the clearest example of a habitat that concentrates biodiversity and also concentrates human dependence. A widely cited scientific overview of Iranian mangrove ecosystems, published in Acta Ecologica Sinica, synthesizes where mangroves occur along Iran’s coasts and why they matter ecologically. In Iran, mangroves are strongly associated with tidal channels and deltas, and they are often dominated by Avicennia marina. Their ecological value is not simply that they are “trees by the sea.” Mangroves create structure in an otherwise shifting environment, producing sheltered water, organic matter, and microhabitats that support fish, crabs, mollusks, and juvenile stages of many species important to fisheries. They also store carbon in sediments and provide some buffering against storms and shoreline change, benefits that are increasingly relevant as climate risks intensify.

One of the most important mangrove anchored seascapes in Iran is the Hara Biosphere Reserve, recognized under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme. UNESCO describes the reserve as located in the Mehran River delta near the Straits of Khuran, adjacent to Qeshm Island, and identifies its Avicennia mangrove ecosystem as the basis for its biodiversity significance. UNESCO’s page lists an area of 206,243 hectares. The same broader system is also recognized under Ramsar as the Khuran Straits wetland, which Ramsar describes as extensive intertidal flats, saltmarsh, mangroves, and numerous creeks and islands. These overlapping designations do not automatically guarantee protection, but they show that the area is internationally recognized for its ecological functions.

Seagrass meadows are often less visible than mangroves, but they play a similar role as nurseries and as food sources for some marine herbivores. Seagrass supports juvenile fish and invertebrates, stabilizes sediments, and can influence local water clarity. In many parts of the Persian Gulf, seagrass is also associated with marine megafauna foraging, including sea turtles. A central challenge in writing about seagrass along Iran’s coast is that long term, coastwide mapping and monitoring are less consistently accessible in the public literature than for mangroves and some coral sites. That gap matters because seagrass is highly sensitive to dredging, coastal construction, and water quality shifts, and it is easy to lose without noticing until productivity declines.

Coral communities are a third pillar of southern biodiversity. Coral reefs in the Persian Gulf exist under conditions that would be stressful for many tropical reef systems, yet they persist in multiple locations, including around islands. This makes them scientifically important as a window into resilience and limits. Recent peer reviewed work in Scientia Marina synthesized the state of coral bleaching across the Persian Gulf and highlighted how marine heatwaves and warming trends are reshaping reef health in the region. Iran’s reef communities are part of that broader story. Coral health is not only about biodiversity for its own sake. Coral structure influences fish habitat, coastal tourism value, and shoreline protection in some settings. When coral declines, the physical complexity that supports many reef associated species can erode, and recovery is often slow, especially under repeated heat stress.

Intertidal flats and estuaries are the fourth habitat type that repeatedly emerges as ecologically load bearing. Mudflats, tidal creeks, and estuarine channels support migratory birds, benthic invertebrates, and juvenile fish. They are also often the first places where pollution accumulates, and the first places where coastal engineering, dredging, and port expansion produce irreversible change.

Islands and offshore biodiversity

Iran’s southern islands concentrate biodiversity, cultural history, and development pressures in a small footprint. They also serve as focal points for conservation designations and ecological research because they can host coral communities, nesting beaches, and productive nearshore waters shaped by currents.

Qeshm Island is the most prominent example, not least because of its proximity to the mangrove systems of the Khuran Straits and the Hara Biosphere Reserve. In practical ecological terms, the island seascape is a mosaic: mangrove channels and mudflats on one side, more exposed coasts on others, and a blend of local fishing, shipping traffic, and tourism.

Several islands are also significant for sea turtles. Sheedvar Island, for example, is listed by Ramsar as a wetland site, reflecting the ecological value of the island and its surrounding marine environment. Turtle nesting in Iran is often spatially concentrated, which makes it vulnerable to localized disturbance. A peer reviewed paper in Chelonian Conservation and Biology focused on hawksbill turtle nesting and conservation conditions at Sheedvar Island, underscoring the role of specific island beaches for reproduction. When nesting habitat is limited to a small set of sites, artificial lighting, beach disturbance, and fishing related interactions can have outsized population effects.

Marine mammals are another crucial part of Iran’s coastal biodiversity, and also a window into how much remains under documented. The Indian Ocean humpback dolphin, Sousa plumbea, is among the best studied in Iranian waters, particularly around protected coastal areas. The Important Marine Mammal Area factsheet for Nakhiloo Coastal Waters describes a small resident population, notes photo identification research that documented dozens of individuals, and links the area to the Dayer Nakhiloo National Marine Park and its shallow mangrove associated waters. This kind of work matters because it moves marine mammals from anecdote to monitoring, and because it can guide practical mitigation, such as reducing bycatch risk, regulating high speed vessel traffic, and managing coastal development footprints.

Coastal life and fishing traditions

Biodiversity is not only species lists and habitat maps. It is also the daily relationship between people and the sea, especially in coastal provinces where fishing is food security, identity, and inherited knowledge.

A helpful entry point is the cultural heritage of seafaring itself. UNESCO’s documentation of the traditional skills of building and sailing Iranian lenj boats describes wooden vessels historically used for sea journeys, trade, fishing, and pearl diving, alongside navigation knowledge and weather forecasting traditions. This is not nostalgia. It is an illustration of how maritime life has long depended on reading winds, currents, seasonal cycles, and ecological cues, and how cultural systems develop around predictable patterns in marine environments.

Modern fisheries along Iran’s southern coasts are a blend of artisanal practices and more industrialized capacity, shaped by regulation, market demand, and regional competition. Some of the clearest, citable information on management measures comes from FAO linked materials. The FAO Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profile for Iran describes the country’s northern and southern coasts and provides a baseline overview of fisheries.

For a more specific and current window into gear and management, an FAO RECOFI workshop document titled Status of Fisheries in I.R. Iran includes concrete statements about trawling restrictions: it describes industrial bottom trawling as forbidden in the Persian Gulf since 1990 and in the Oman Sea since 2020, while allowing limited artisanal bottom trawling for shrimp under seasonal constraints. These details matter for biodiversity because trawling is among the fishing methods most directly linked to seabed disturbance and bycatch risk. Restrictions do not eliminate ecological impact, but they can reduce pressure, especially when paired with enforcement and gear improvements.

It is also important to recognize that fisheries culture cannot be separated from coastal economics. When livelihoods depend on catch, ecological decline becomes a household crisis, not an abstract conservation concern. That reality is one reason why data gaps are so consequential. If stock assessments are incomplete or politically constrained, decisions can drift toward short term survival rather than sustainable yields, especially during periods of inflation, sanctions, or conflict related disruption.

Strait of Hormuz and a crowded seascape

The Strait of Hormuz is one of the most geopolitically significant maritime corridors on Earth, and it is also an ecological bottleneck in a quieter sense: it concentrates shipping density, underwater noise, pollution risk, and the pathways by which non native species can move via ballast water and hull fouling.

The United States Energy Information Administration describes the Strait of Hormuz as a critical oil transit chokepoint. That framing is usually economic, but the ecological implications are direct. A high traffic corridor raises the baseline probability of incidents, from collisions to spills. It also raises chronic stressors that can be harder to see, like persistent noise that affects dolphins and other marine life, and localized contamination around ports and anchorage zones.

In the current crisis, those risks have sharply intensified. Reuters has reported disruption to shipping in and around the Strait, including tankers stranded or damaged and broader market impacts. The International Maritime Organization has issued a statement emphasizing protection of seafarers and the fundamental principle of freedom of navigation. Wired has reported a surge in GPS and AIS interference in the Gulf region since the onset of the current campaign, warning of navigation hazards that elevate collision and spill risk. These are not biodiversity sources in the usual sense, but they are essential context because acute conflict related disruptions can translate into ecological harm on very short timescales.

For readers focused on biodiversity, the key point is not to turn an ecology story into a war story. The point is to recognize that when the Strait becomes unstable, the environmental stakes rise for everyone, including coastal communities who have no control over geopolitics but live with the consequences.

Institutions and research working in and near Iran

Even under political and economic constraints, biodiversity work in Iran is not isolated. It exists at the intersection of Iranian agencies, universities, civil society, and treaty based cooperation.

At the national policy level, Iran’s biodiversity strategy and action plan submitted under the Convention on Biological Diversity lays out institutional roles and planned actions, and it serves as an anchor document for how Iran presents its biodiversity priorities internationally. This does not mean implementation is straightforward, but it provides a reference point for programs, targets, and constraints.

On wetlands, UNDP has a long running Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project, with a public project page describing ecosystem based approaches and capacity building in partnership with national stakeholders. UNDP has also published additional material describing outcomes and methods, including work linked to agricultural water use and wetland basin management. These efforts matter for marine and coastal biodiversity because Ramsar’s definition of wetlands includes coastal systems such as estuaries and tidal flats, and because inland water decisions can shape coastal productivity.

At the regional level, the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment, known as ROPME, is a core coordinating institution for the wider Gulf region. ROPME’s official site describes its establishment and purpose, and UNEP’s Kuwait Convention page describes ROPME’s objective to coordinate member state efforts to protect marine and coastal ecosystems against pollution and other stressors. In practical terms, regional organizations can be crucial for shared monitoring, pollution response coordination, and building consistent standards across borders in a sea where water and wildlife do not respect jurisdictional lines.

On cultural heritage, UNESCO’s documentation of Iranian lenj boats provides an example of how maritime culture can be treated as heritage worth safeguarding, which can complement conservation by reinforcing community identity and continuity.

Finally, international research frameworks such as Important Marine Mammal Areas show how biodiversity evidence can be synthesized into actionable place based priorities. The Nakhiloo Coastal Waters factsheet is an example of a source that is both scientifically grounded and designed to support management decisions, including in areas that face coastal development and fisheries interactions.

What to expect and what to watch

Iran’s coastal biodiversity sits at the intersection of three forces.

The first is climate stress. The Persian Gulf is already an extreme environment, and coral bleaching research across the region underscores how warming and heat events can push systems beyond recovery thresholds. Climate change also interacts with water management and land use decisions inland, as shown starkly in the Lake Urmia case, where reduced water availability and salinity shifts have reshaped bird communities over time.

The second is development pressure. Ports, coastal construction, and industrial zones can fragment habitats and degrade water quality, especially in shallow systems and estuaries. The habitats that matter most, mangroves, seagrass, mudflats, and nearshore reefs, are also the habitats most likely to be impacted by dredging and shoreline engineering.

The third is volatility. In March 2026, the war has created an acute layer of risk for the Strait of Hormuz and surrounding waters, with real implications for shipping safety, spill probability, and coastal community stability. Biodiversity conservation is always difficult in politically complex environments. It becomes even harder when attention and resources are pulled toward immediate security and humanitarian needs.

And yet, there is a constructive way to think about this moment. Iran’s coasts are not defined only by threat. They are defined by a rare combination of ecological productivity and cultural depth: mangrove labyrinths that function as nurseries, islands that host nesting turtles, dolphins that still maintain resident populations in shallow coastal waters, and a maritime heritage that has adapted for centuries to seasonal rhythms and environmental extremes.

For readers outside Iran, the most useful stance is not pity or distance. It is curiosity paired with humility. Iran’s biodiversity is real, it is complex, and it is not reducible to headlines. If anything, the current crisis is a reminder that environmental literacy is not separate from human events. It is part of how we understand what is at risk, what endures, and what recovery could mean, for ecosystems and for the people who live with them.

References

• Reuters. Iran conflict disrupts global shipping as tankers are stranded, damaged.
• Wired. Attacks on GPS Spike Amid US and Israeli War on Iran.
• International Maritime Organization. Statement on the Strait of Hormuz.
• World Bank Data. Land area (sq. km) Iran, Islamic Rep.
• Convention on Biological Diversity. CBD Strategy and Action Plan, Islamic Republic of Iran (NBSAP2, 2016 to 2030).
• World Bank Data. Terrestrial protected areas percent of total land area Iran, Islamic Rep.
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Hyrcanian Forests.
• Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. Iran country profile.
• Shariati M, Hemami M R. The drying of Lake Urmia and its consequences for waterbird assemblages. Bird Conservation International. Cambridge University Press. Link.
• Zahed M A, Rouhani F, Mohajeri S, Bateni F. An overview of Iranian mangrove ecosystems, northern part of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. Acta Ecologica Sinica. ScienceDirect.
• UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme. Hara.
• Ramsar Sites Information Service. Khuran Straits.
• Kavousi J, Tavakoli-Kolour P, Mohammadizadeh M, Bahrami A, Barkhordari A. Mass coral bleaching in the northern Persian Gulf, 2012. Sci. mar. Link.
• Ramsar Sites Information Service. Sheedvar Island.
• Shidvar hawksbill nesting and clutch success paper. Chelonian Conservation and Biology, BioOne.
• Important Marine Mammal Areas. Nakhiloo Coastal Waters IMMA factsheet.
• UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage. Traditional skills of building and sailing Iranian Lenj boats in the Persian Gulf.
• FAO. Fishery and Aquaculture Country Profiles, Iran (Islamic Republic of).
• FAO RECOFI. Status of Fisheries in I.R. Iran. PDF.
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• UNDP Iran. Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project Phase II.
• UNDP Iran. Story of a Joint Effort: Conservation of Iranian Wetlands Project.
• ROPME. Official website.
• UNEP. Kuwait Convention.