Good morning every body.
I've reasently been to the yearly assembly of HEPCA (Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conversation Association). I'm quite impressed what Amr Ali and his crew is doing for the Egyptian environment in general and for the Red Sea in particular. Now I'm a bit curiouse what's happening on the environmental front in the rest of the world. Are there any similar organisations in Carabbean, Asia, Australia, Pacific Ocean, Europe and North- South America? What are the main problems/solutions?
HEPCA, which by the way is an NGO, are fixing mooring lines on dive sites in the Red Sea. This means less wear and tear on the reefs.
Some time ago they managed to make, not only shark fishing illegal, but all trade with shark products is now outlawed. This means alot for the Red Sea. I'll take Daedalus Reef as an example. Every yerar around late May to Early July we have loads of hammerheads around this reef. If some one would get the idea to go and fish for shark there at this time this would have devestating consequences since the schools are females congregating. This means that a hit here would wipe off the main population of sexually mature females and reproduction would be interrupted badly.
One of the latest, and really cool news is that the whole Egyptian Red Sea is going to be a fishing-free zone. This menas that all the huge fishing boats that comes in from the Mediterranean Sea and from Sudan in the south now won't be alowed any more. Wicked! Before it was a bit tricky to inforce the No-Shark-Fishing law since there was fishing boats out there and it's tricky to check all of them for sharks. Now since it's not supposed to be any fishing boats at all it's easier to police. The Fishing is to be completely stopped July 1st 2009.
Now the HEPCA managed to ban all use of plastic bags in the Red Sea area. All the hotel- and supermarket- chains have signed the agreement. This is fantastic since plastic bags are doing a lot of damage on the reefs and also kills turtles who think it's yellyfish.
HEPCA is also building recykling plants along the Red Sea coast and educates the locals in sustainable waste handeling. The organic waste goes to food for goats and camels and the rest is devided into categories. Some gets burned and some gets shipped away for recycling. At the moment 45.000 ton (YES! Fortyfive thousand ton) is processed every month.
Of course all this is good idea but unless the next generation continues the work it's a short term solution. HEPCA thought so to and started to teach environmental thinking to the Egyptian children. Now it's kind of tricky to teach kids about all these things if they don't even have a WC in their school. So HEPCA also renovated the schools in the country side to be up to standards.
So, this is what's going on here in Egypt. What's being done out there in the rest of the world?
I've reasently been to the yearly assembly of HEPCA (Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conversation Association). I'm quite impressed what Amr Ali and his crew is doing for the Egyptian environment in general and for the Red Sea in particular. Now I'm a bit curiouse what's happening on the environmental front in the rest of the world. Are there any similar organisations in Carabbean, Asia, Australia, Pacific Ocean, Europe and North- South America? What are the main problems/solutions?
HEPCA, which by the way is an NGO, are fixing mooring lines on dive sites in the Red Sea. This means less wear and tear on the reefs.
Some time ago they managed to make, not only shark fishing illegal, but all trade with shark products is now outlawed. This means alot for the Red Sea. I'll take Daedalus Reef as an example. Every yerar around late May to Early July we have loads of hammerheads around this reef. If some one would get the idea to go and fish for shark there at this time this would have devestating consequences since the schools are females congregating. This means that a hit here would wipe off the main population of sexually mature females and reproduction would be interrupted badly.
One of the latest, and really cool news is that the whole Egyptian Red Sea is going to be a fishing-free zone. This menas that all the huge fishing boats that comes in from the Mediterranean Sea and from Sudan in the south now won't be alowed any more. Wicked! Before it was a bit tricky to inforce the No-Shark-Fishing law since there was fishing boats out there and it's tricky to check all of them for sharks. Now since it's not supposed to be any fishing boats at all it's easier to police. The Fishing is to be completely stopped July 1st 2009.
Now the HEPCA managed to ban all use of plastic bags in the Red Sea area. All the hotel- and supermarket- chains have signed the agreement. This is fantastic since plastic bags are doing a lot of damage on the reefs and also kills turtles who think it's yellyfish.
HEPCA is also building recykling plants along the Red Sea coast and educates the locals in sustainable waste handeling. The organic waste goes to food for goats and camels and the rest is devided into categories. Some gets burned and some gets shipped away for recycling. At the moment 45.000 ton (YES! Fortyfive thousand ton) is processed every month.
Of course all this is good idea but unless the next generation continues the work it's a short term solution. HEPCA thought so to and started to teach environmental thinking to the Egyptian children. Now it's kind of tricky to teach kids about all these things if they don't even have a WC in their school. So HEPCA also renovated the schools in the country side to be up to standards.
So, this is what's going on here in Egypt. What's being done out there in the rest of the world?
