Broken China Dishes to to Encourage Oyster Habitat

Dubai: When a global airline decides to deep-six discarded items no longer used on its commercial aircraft, the waste usually makes its way to a dumpster bound for the landfill.

But in an unusual break from the routine, Emirates airline has come up with a creative way of discarding roughly 18 tonnes of worn-out chinaware used on its fleet of 169 passenger aircraft whilst creating new habitat for marine animals in the waters off Dubai.

Earlier this week on a flat blue sea early in the morning, a large steel tug steamed towards a point just west of the Palm Jebel Ali to dispatch its unusual payload on the seabed.

Once anchored over a large underwater summit, marine crews manoeuvred an on-board crane to swing bags of crushed china weighing a tonne each and, with the pull of a rip cord, released the non-toxic china pieces into the water.

With precision, 18 bags of material were emptied to create a carefully positioned layer on the sea floor of new china substrata with a view to providing a 100 square-metre nursery of sorts for thousands of young Gulf Pearl oysters.

The new substrate will help replace marine habitat lost via construction of offshore projects along the Dubai shoreline such as the Palm Jebel Ali, Palm Jumeirah and The World islands.

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