One of the great joys of living in Saudi Arabia has always been the natural environment itself – the dunes, the jebals and especially the Gulf with its beaches, reefs and islands. For those lucky enough to visit Juraid Island, fifteen miles offshore from Jubail, the experience has always been unforgettable. A pristine island shaped like a giant teardrop, Juraid is ringed with verdant, relatively shallow, coral reefs teeming with hundreds of species of fish and aquatic creatures – angel fish, hamoor, clown fish, rays, eels, skipjack, sardines, sea turtles, porpoise, sharks and literally hundreds of species that only a marine biologist could name but every snorkeler can appreciate for their beauty. The island itself is the nesting ground of three different types of terns and numerous mice.
In 1967 Aramco’s Public Relations department decided to produce a movie about the island wherein six American teenagers and two scientists spend four days and three nights on the island to explore the island and its place in the ecology of the Gulf. Perhaps the most memorable moment was the chance to watch dozens of female sea turtles laboriously make their way on shore to lay their eggs. Every night we witnessed this spectacle, enthralled by its immediacy and humbled to realize that this birthing had been going on in this very spot for thousands of years.
