Beyond the Blue: Documentary highlights Abu Dhabi National Aquarium’s conservation efforts

Marine biologist Paul Hamilton hopes National Geographic film will encourage future generations to preserve and save marine life

A documentary titled Beyond the Blue: Rescue | Rehab | Release is being shown on National Geographic Abu Dhabi today. It’s the result of three years of work, during which a film crew followed the conservation team at the capital's National Aquarium to focus on their ongoing efforts towards conserving the sea animals that live in the waters around the city.

One of the stars of the documentary is Paul Hamilton, general manager of the National Aquarium and a marine biologist who feels passionately about his team's efforts to preserve and enrich the emirate’s marine wildlife.

The documentary crew followed Hamilton’s team around the aquarium and when they went out to rescue animals that needed aid. He recalls an instance, which is also shown in the film, of needing to save a whale shark that had strayed away from its pack in the seas of Qatar and arrived on Abu Dhabi’s shores.

Hamilton says: “In order to move the whale shark, I reached out to some of the best experts in the world, and these people were talking to me about all my options and essentially what they came back with is: 'We have no idea how to help you'".

The whale shark needed to be moved closer to its pack, but the team didn’t have the apparatus that could carry it safely. That’s when Hamilton stepped in and custom-designed a net to suit the purpose.

“We had to invent a process, we had to come up with something that hadn't been done before, a new way in which to move a whale shark, so we invented a shark transport bag,” he explains.

Hamilton says this process had to be put into action quickly as the whale shark was in critical condition. He drew what the net would look like in his kitchen and, within two days, it was manufactured and used to move the animal closer to where it needed to be.

It wasn't easy, and Hamilton even reveals a scar he suffered while putting the whale shark into the net safely. “It was a difficult task, but once the shark was in the bag, we were able to transport it 20km back to the Arabian Gulf. We attached a satellite tag and successfully tracked the shark all the way to Qatar, where it was supposed to go,” he says.

The team at the aquarium have also put a lot of effort into conserving and helping turtles. Hamilton says: “Sea turtles globally are an endangered species. There are a number of threats affecting their populations.”

He adds that one of the issues that turtles in the UAE deal with is a cold snap in the winter, when the waters become too cold for them. “We assist the animals because every single one of these turtles back in the wild is essentially another turtle that's going to contribute to the population,” says Hamilton.

The National Aquarium's significant contribution to the conservation of turtles has also been captured in the documentary. Hamilton is proud of the claim that “the wildlife rescue programme here at the National Aquarium has probably done some of the biggest contributions in the world when it comes to rescue rehab for sea turtles”.

In terms of numbers, Hamilton says the aquarium has helped about 1,200 turtles get rehabilitated and released back to the wild. In addition to the turtles that are natural to the region, the team have also picked up and helped turtles that swim from as far away as the Maldives and given them the aid needed before setting them free to return to their homes.

Beyond the Blue highlights these efforts and more. Hamilton says he became a marine biologist after seeing a shark at an aquarium in New Zealand at the age of five, and he hopes that younger generations who visit the aquarium or watch the documentary are just as inspired to join in the effort when they grow up.

“If we can have that impact on children nowadays, children who don't get too many opportunities to actually go out into the wild and interact with animals, if we can create that connection with them, then we may be fostering the future conservationists of the planet,” he says.

Beyond the Blue airs on National Geographic at 9pm GST today, 12am and 1pm tomorrow, and 2pm Friday