21 Endangered Turtles Released into Arabian Gulf

Coinciding with the World Sea Turtle Day 2023, the release underscores the vital role turtles play in maintaining the balance of marine habitats. WAM
Coinciding with the World Sea Turtle Day 2023, the release underscores the vital role turtles play in maintaining the balance of marine habitats. WAM
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21 Endangered Turtles Released into Arabian Gulf

Coinciding with the World Sea Turtle Day 2023, the release underscores the vital role turtles play in maintaining the balance of marine habitats. WAM
Coinciding with the World Sea Turtle Day 2023, the release underscores the vital role turtles play in maintaining the balance of marine habitats. WAM

Jumeirah Group’s Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project has released 15 Hawksbill and 6 Green Turtles, both of which are considered endangered species, from its Jumeirah Al Naseem beach, Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported Friday.

Coinciding with the World Sea Turtle Day 2023, the release in the Arabian Gulf underscores the vital role turtles play in maintaining the balance of marine habitats, WAM said.

Among the successfully rehabilitated turtles were one large female green turtle which had suffered carapace damage due to a boat strike, as well as a male hawksbill turtle named Zippy.

Zippy was rescued by the Dubai Turtle Rehabilitation Project in October 2022, after being found in bad shape floating near the Ras al Khaimah shoreline and reported via the 800 TURTLE helpline.

Zippy suffered intestine impaction from eating plastic debris, a severe lung infection and was completely covered in barnacles.

The event was hosted by Katerina Giannouka, Chief Executive Officer at Jumeirah Group. In her welcome speech, she said, “With many of our resorts being coastal, both here in the Middle East as well as in Europe, Indonesia and the Maldives, we witness first-hand the impact of climate change on precious marine species and these delicate ecosystems.”

“Coastal resilience and biodiversity health are critical to Jumeirah as a business and for the tourism and hospitality sector globally. We have an obligation to act now, to educate, to collaborate, and to champion progress towards a sustainable future for all," Giannouka added.

The event was attended by key partners including government representatives, academia and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Also in attendance were representatives from Yas Sea World Research and Rescue, who performed a CT scan on Zippy at the start of his remarkable rehabilitation journey.



NASA, SpaceX Delay Flight that Was to Retrieve Stuck Astronauts

The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
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NASA, SpaceX Delay Flight that Was to Retrieve Stuck Astronauts

The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
The NASA SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will carry the NASA's Crew-10, is docked after the launch was scrubbed at the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Titusville, Florida, USA, 12 March 2025. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH

NASA and SpaceX on Wednesday delayed the launch of a replacement crew of four astronauts to the International Space Station that would have set in motion the long-awaited homecoming of US astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams.
NASA had been set to launch a SpaceX rocket from Florida carrying a replacement crew for the International Space Station in a mission that would set up the return to Earth of Wilmore and Williams - stuck in space for nine months after a trip on Boeing's faulty Starliner.
The launch was called off due to a hydraulic system issue with a ground support clamp arm for the Falcon 9 rocket, Reuters quoted NASA as saying in a statement.
Launch teams are working to address the issue, it said in another statement.
NASA said it is now targeting a launch no earlier than 7:03 p.m. EDT (2303 GMT) Friday after mission managers put off a launch attempt on Thursday because of high winds and rain forecast in the flight path of Dragon.
With a Friday Crew-10 launch, the Crew-9 mission with astronauts Wilmore and Williams would depart the space station on Wednesday, March 19, it said.
The US space agency had moved up the mission by two weeks after President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, called for Wilmore and Williams to be brought back earlier than NASA had planned.
A planned eight-day stay on the orbiting station has dragged on for Wilmore and Williams, both veteran astronauts and US Navy test pilots. Starliner returned to Earth without them last year.
SpaceX's rocket had been scheduled to blast off from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral at 7:48 p.m. ET (2348 GMT) with a crew of two US astronauts and one astronaut each from Japan and Russia.
Wilmore and Williams have been working on research and maintenance with the space station's other astronauts and have remained safe, according to NASA. Williams told reporters in a March 4 call that she is looking forward to seeing her family and dogs upon returning home.
"It's been a roller coaster for them, probably a little bit more so than for us," Williams said of her family. "We're here, we have a mission - we're just doing what we do every day, and every day is interesting because we're up in space and it's a lot of fun."
The flight, known as Crew-10, normally would be considered a routine astronaut rotation. Instead, it has become entangled in politics as Trump and Musk have sought - without offering evidence - to blame former President Joe Biden for the delayed return of Wilmore and Williams.
The demands by Trump and Musk for an earlier return were an unusual intervention in NASA's human spaceflight operations. The mission previously had a target date of March 26, but NASA swapped a delayed SpaceX capsule with a different one that would be ready sooner.
When the new crew arrives aboard the station, Wilmore, Williams and two others - NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov - can return to Earth in a capsule that has been attached to the station since September, as part of the prior Crew-9 mission.
Wilmore and Williams cannot leave until the new Crew-10 craft arrives so that the ISS staffed with enough US astronauts for maintenance, according to NASA.
Wilmore and Williams flew to the station in June as the first test crew of Boeing's Starliner, which suffered propulsion system issues in space. NASA deemed it too risky for the astronauts to fly home on the Boeing craft. This led to the current plan to bring them home in a SpaceX capsule.