JEDDAH, 30 June 2007 — Over one hundred divers entered the Red Sea to help clean the reef wall on Jeddah’s Corniche on Thursday. The exercise was part of the Scuba Saudia course run by Blue Reef Divers to train Saudi divers and raise their awareness of the fragile environment of the reef they use for their sport.
“The cleanup is part of the Remora program, a section of the Scuba Saudia course,” said Ahmed Al-Sabban, a marketing manager for Blue Reef Divers. “It gets young Saudis aware of their environment and taking responsibility for it in the most practical way.”
The divers cleared the reef wall, which reaches 30 meters in depth, opposite the Westin Hotel. The site is popular with fishermen who leave a formidable tangle of discarded lines that cover the reef wall in a dense network.
The cleanup event, which lasted until sunset, saw the removal of large amounts of monofilament fishing line, drinks cans and the detritus of thoughtless picnickers who regularly use this popular spot on the Corniche.
“The cleanup day was a success by any standards,” said Ehab Abu Al-Adel, the first Saudi to be appointed a diving instructor on the program. The cleanup project on Thursday was just part of the ongoing campaign to improve the local marine environment. Scuba Saudi has targeted a 5-km stretch of the Corniche for their cleanup operations that would, said Adel, draw the attention of the public to the need to refrain from polluting the marine environment.
The ongoing Scuba Saudia course, established in 2006, is a two-pronged training program designed to train young Saudis to dive safely and to educate them in conservation of the marine environment. The environmental training is an integral part of the course and divers cannot graduate without completing both sections satisfactorily.
