SEVENSEAS Travel Magazine – No. 125 October 2025

Explore Abu Dhabi through Culture, Conservation, Adventure

As Abu Dhabi prepares to host the IUCN World Conservation Congress, the city offers more than conference halls. Grand mosques, desert oases, mangrove forests, coral nurseries, and modern museums show how culture and conservation intertwine in the UAE’s capital. Whether you have a day or a week, our guide reveals a destination where tradition meets innovation, and where protecting nature is as central as celebrating heritage. [Read more]

How Abu Dhabi Became a Global Leader in Ocean Diplomacy

Within a decade, Abu Dhabi has transformed from a regional maritime player into a global ocean governance leader. From pioneering AI-driven aquaculture at Delma Island to mobilizing $85 billion in climate commitments, the emirate has woven conservation, technology, and diplomacy into one strategy. Dugongs, mangroves, coral gardens, and cutting-edge maritime security now stand at the center of its influence. A new model of ocean leadership, showing how middle powers can reshape the world through persistence and innovation. [Read more]

How Abu Dhabi Transformed Its Fisheries Within Six Years

Six years ago Abu Dhabi’s fisheries were in free fall. Today the sustainability score stands at 97.4 percent. The turn began with clear choices in 2018, when bottom trawls and drift nets were banned and the fleet shifted to selective gear like handlines and hadhra that now provide most landings. Recovery is visible in the water, from the return of rare nuaimi and a first white-spotted grouper in decades to a pilot of high-tech sea cages at Dalma that raises local species without pressuring wild stocks. When science leads and leaders move quickly, oceans can rebound faster than we think. [Read more]

Abu Dhabi Launches Largest Coral Restoration Project

After losing 73% of its coral cover in a single bleaching event, Abu Dhabi is responding with the world’s largest coral restoration project. Forty thousand artificial reefs will span 1,200 square kilometers by 2030, using the Gulf’s heat-tolerant “super corals” as the foundation. Bold, risky, and globally significant, Coral Gardens is a test of how far technology can help reefs survive in a warming resilient world. [Read more]

Dugongs and Turtles Return to Abu Dhabi’s Recovering Waters

Abu Dhabi’s dugongs have climbed to more than 3,500 with 20% sightings a mother and calf. Hawksbill turtle nests are up 28 percent and a first green turtle nest appeared on local beaches. Coral nurseries have transplanted over one million colonies with a 95% survival rate and fish biomass around restored reefs has risen by half. Protection met restoration, and the ecosystem began to heal itself. [Read more]

Abu Dhabi’s Ocean Guardians Redefine Marine Conservation

In Abu Dhabi, conservation has gone digital. Environmental DNA, drones, AI-powered aquaculture, and a research vessel bristling with labs are redefining what it means to protect the sea. By safeguarding dugongs turtles, mapping mangroves, and monitoring coral, technology is turning vision into measurable results. A testament of science and sustainability must be moving together. [Read more]

Fishing with Care: Innovation to Reduce Bycatch

For North Atlantic right whales, each entanglement could be the difference between survival and extinction. At NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center, researchers are partnering with fishermen to invent new solutions — ropeless traps, turtle excluder devices, and a gear lending library. The ocean and the whales are thankful for this kind of cooperation [Read more]

Riding the Audio Waves: Why the Ocean Needs a Podcast

When the ocean is often invisible in daily life, how do we keep its stories alive? For Clark Marchese and Pine Forest Media, the answer is podcasting. Oceanography brings the voices of scientists into everyday moments. From whales that sing to gear that saves lives, the conversations carry far beyond screens. Proof that sometimes the most powerful conservation tool is simply listening. [Read more]

Beyond the Boundaries: What It Really Takes to Protect a Marine Area

California’s marine protected areas are often called sanctuaries, but what truly protects them is people. Jamie Blatter of the MPA Collaborative Network reveals the unseen work of turning boundaries into living protections. A reminder that conservation does not end with a line on a map. It begins with trust carried forward by those who live closest to the sea. [Read more]

61° Wildlife Photographer of The Year

The sixty-first edition of Wildlife Photographer of the Year opens at London’s Natural History Museum on October 17, with a Milan showing from November 15 to January 25. One hundred images were chosen from a record 60,636 entries. This year pairs art with science through the museum’s Biodiversity Intactness Index, a clear window into how habitats are changing. With the youngest being a nine-year-old talents. [Read more]

Freshened Water Beneath the Seafloor

Far below the New England Shelf, scientists have uncovered vast reserves of freshened water, nearly as pure as drinking standards, stored miles offshore. An international drilling expedition brought up data and clues to Earth’s hidden history. Now Professor Rebecca Robinson and her team are tracing how nitrogen moves through this ancient reservoir, insights that could shift what we know about the ocean. [Read more]

Lionfish Research Reveals a Voracious Invader

Imagine pulling fifteen whole fish from the stomach of a single nine-inch lionfish. That’s what NOAA scientists found at Flower Garden Banks, alongside evidence of obesity in these predators and a genetic story tracing the invasion back to just ten females. This deep dive into lionfish biology reveals how one species is reshaping reef ecosystems and what it means for our conservation. [Read more]