Qatar University research ship embarks on environmental monitoring expedition

The Qatar Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) and Qatar University’s (QU) Environmental Science Center have embarked on an expedition to monitor the marine environment within the waters of the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The three-day expedition began on Thursday, February 19, when the QU vessel Janan sailed out of Doha Port with a team of scientists and researchers from the MME and QU.

The team will collect water samples at various depths within Qatar’s EEZ to gauge changes in the marine environment’s biological, chemical, and physical composition that have occurred over the last 15 years.

Hassan Ali al-Qassimi, director of the MME’s Department of Monitoring and Environmental Laboratory, said that similar expeditions to monitor the marine environment in the EEZ will be carried out in future at a rate of one or two a year.