Community Community The students Dr Tejinder of Grade-XI of Singh, P6SIS organised P16 founder and farewell event MD of Q-Tickets, ‘Valediction’ for speaks about how he the outgoing set up the company batch of Grade-XII. and what his vision is. Tuesday, January 21, 2020 Jumada I 26, 1441 AH Doha today: 160 - 230 Dénouement Scientists were stumped when seabirds started dying. Now they know why. P4-5 COVER STORY 2 GULF TIMES Tuesday, January 21, 2020 COMMUNITY ROUND & ABOUT PRAYER TIME Fajr 5am Shorooq (sunrise) 6.22am Zuhr (noon) 11.46am Asr (afternoon) 2.50pm Maghreb (sunset) 5.11pm Isha (night) 6.41pm USEFUL NUMBERS Jai Mummy Di the trials and tribulations a couple has to undergo due to the CAST: Sunny Singh Nijjar, Sonnalli Seygall, Supriya Pathak dynamics between their respective mothers. Emergency 999 DIRECTION: Navjot Gulati Worldwide Emergency Number 112 SYNOPSIS: A light-hearted family comedy that portrays THEATRES: Royal Plaza, Landmark Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Dhamaka Annie because of her strong fi nancial background and the two Qatar Airways 40253374 DIRECTION: Omar end up getting married. However, his marriage turns into a CAST: Sabumon Abdusamad, Idavela Babu, Dharmajan fi asco when he fails to establish an emotional connection with Bolgatty her. SYNOPSIS: Eeyo, an unemployed man, gets attracted to THEATRES: Landmark, The Mall, Royal Plaza ote Unquo u te Q“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Community Editor For movie timings and Kamran Rehmat further details please scan e-mail: [email protected] the QR code above with your Telephone: 44466405 mobile phone camera or visit qatarcinemas.com Fax: 44350474 Tuesday, January 21, 2020 GULF TIMES 3 ROUND & ABOUT COMMUNITY WHEN:Ongoing till July 1 school includes Group Music lessons, Hip- TIME: 6:30pm – 9pm hop, Ballet, Drawing and Painting, Drama Get trained by experts to be a good speaker. Theatre & Taekwondo. Ages between 5 and 10 Smedley Toastmasters is conducting a years old after school hours six-month speech-craft programme that teaches new members to speak confi dently and develop leadership skills. For more information, 66053485, 33232490 or visit www.SmedleyToastmasters.org Shop Qatar 2020 WHERE: Malls in Qatar WHEN: Ongoing till January 31 TIME: Entire day Shop Qatar has something for everyone, including beauty masterclasses, fashion shows, shopping off ers, mall activities and shows, raffl e draws, and Chinese New Year celebrations. The Colour Run 2020 water sports, Winter Dragon Boat Festival WHERE: QNCC is back to show us their fast rowing skills. WHEN: January 25 Dragon boating is a canoe-sport and was TIME: 7am – 10pm originally a traditional festival game dating Your Health First is a fi ve-kilometre, back 2,000 years throughout Southern untimed event. At each kilometre mark, China. It has now become a popular sport Colour Runners are doused from head to toe with competitions held around the world. in a diff erent coloured powder. Participants wear white at the starting line and fi nish the race plastered in colour. Once the 5k is over, the fun continues at the Finish Festival, a larger-than-life party equipped with music, dancing, photo ops, activity booths, vendors, and more massive colour throws, which create millions of vivid colour combinations. Children’s Fashion Show WHERE: Al Miqab Mall WHEN: January 24 TIME: 2pm – 4pm After School Activities Open Evening Find the coolest looks from your favourite WHERE: Atelier WHERE: Cafeteria Stenden University brands for your younger ones at a fun WHEN: Ongoing Qatar children’s fashion show. The action is Music and arts activities for students WHEN: Tomorrow happening at Mirqab Mall in the Atrium on taking place after they fi nish their day in TIME: 3pm – 6pm January 24. Metro Street Food WHERE: DECC Metro Station Sonu Nigam Live in Qatar WHEN: Ongoing WHERE: Asian Town Amphitheatre TIME: 12:30pm WHEN: January 23 Street Food is the ideal venue for a leisure TIME: 7:30pm onwards experience for the whole family off ering over Back by popular demand, Sonu Nigam, returns to wow his fans once again in a one-night only 20 dine-in options and 18-hole World Mini- concert. Presented by Q-Tickets the event is part of Shop Qatar Festival and under the aegis of Golf setup. Qatar National Tourism Council. Sonu Nigam has sung over 10,000 songs in diff erent languages and has received over 40 mainstream awards. Winter Dragon Boat Festival 2020 WHERE: Museum of Islamic Art WHEN: January 24 Public Speaking Classes for Adults Row, paddle, hurry up! Qatar’s largest WHERE: Sharq Capital, C-Ring Road Compiled by Nausheen Shaikh. E-mail: [email protected], Events and timings subject to change 4 GULF TIMES Tuesday, January 21, 2020 COMMUNITY COVER STORY What killed the birds In the winter of 2013, a mysterious blanket of abnormally warm water appeared in the Gulf of Alaska and wreaked havoc on marine ecosystems from the Bering Strait to Mexico for three long years, writes Jennifer Lu THE BLOB DID IT: Half a million to 1.2 million common murres starved to death during the 2014 to 2016 marine heatwave — about 10% to 20% of the population. Did that get my attention? Yeah, you bet. This level of mortality and over this range is just mind-blowing — John Piatt, wildlife biologist at the ‘ US Geological Survey in Anchorage ’ Tuesday, January 21, 2020 GULF TIMES 5 COVER STORY COMMUNITY n the fall of 2015, two years daily diet of about 60 to 120 high- into a heatwave in the Pacifi c fat forage fi sh, including sardines, Ocean colloquially known as ‘The Blob’ killed the murres herring and capelin. Without food, “the Blob,” an unusually large murres starve to death within three infl ux of common murres, a In the winter of 2013, a blanket of abnormally warm water dubbed to fi ve days. Ismall northern seabird, began to Many of the dead or dying wash ashore. “The Blob,”,pp appeared in the Gulf of Alaska, the Bering Strait and murres that washed ashore had They overwhelmed rehabilitation Mexico forfor three years. A million to 1.2 millionmil common murres empty stomachs and little to no centres. body fat or muscle. They stopped laying as many starvedstarved to deathdeath duringduring duringduring thisthis periodperiod because the warmed “As the bottom of the ecosystem eggs. was shifting in not good ways, Their starved carcasses littered water decimated their food fooodo source. source. the top of the ecosystem was the coasts from California to the demanding a lot more food,” Parish Gulf of Alaska. CommonCommon murremurre said. The murres got caught in “an Scientists believe they now know Alaska intense competition for absolutely what went wrong. The answer A ppenguin-like,enguin-like, not enough food, which is what involves the Blob and how it rippled killed them.” across multiple levels of the marine fish-eatingfish-eating birdbird BeringBering In many ways, the murres are the food web, and it comes amid more ofof thethe coolercooler SeaSea perfect climate change bellwether. reports of rapidly warming oceans. northernnorthern Gulf of While the Blob eventually In the winter of 2013, a San dissipated and murre populations mysterious blanket of abnormally oceans.oceans. Mexico stabilised, the heatwave off ered a warm water appeared in the Gulf Francisco glimpse into how warming oceans of Alaska and wreaked havoc in a warmer world push marine on marine ecosystems from the populations toward collapse. Bering Strait to Mexico for three WarmedWarmed byb U.S. This month, a study in Advances long years. Species lower in 5.45.4 to 10.810.8 in Atmospheric Sciences reported the food web that prefer colder Pacific that global ocean temperatures in waters, which tend to be fattier, FahrenheitFahrenhei Ocean 2019 were the warmest on record, more nutritious phytoplankton a trend that has continued for the and zooplankton that feed the last decade. forage fish eaten by sea lions and Hawaii A recent special report from sea birds — were replaced by TheThe CommonCommon Murre the Intergovernment Panel on warmer water species of lower nnestsests aalonglong rocrockyky Climate Change found that nutritional value. marine heatwaves have doubled A whole new ecosystem was cliffscliffs and spendsspends its in frequency since 1982 and are establishing itself all the way up wwinterinter at seasea.. Equator expected to become 20 to 50 times the food chain, said Julia Parrish, more frequent if we don’t curb professor of marine sciences at the 1,000 km greenhouse gas emissions. The University of Washington and a co- panel also projected that oceans author on a new study published in 1,000 miles will absorb two to four times more PLOS One that characterises murre heat by the end of the century mortality and breeding failures Source: Los Angeles Times, NOAA than they did in the past 50 years during the heatwave. Parrish also Graphic: Bay Area News Group if global warming is limited to 3.6 directs the Coastal Observation and degrees. Seabird Survey Team (COASST), Last week, NOAA and NASA the largest citizen monitoring they never go and had never been three marine ecosystems over 3,700 with the common murre for food released a report that the last program of beached birds in the seen before,” Smith said.