BleachWatch Egypt seeks volunteers for its community based coral reef monitoring program that acts as an early warning system for potential coral bleaching events. Trained volunteers report back on the health of their local reefs and the information is used to track bleaching events and other environmental damage.

BleachWatch Egypt is being launched this month at the Red Sea Diving Safari in Marsa Shagra, and will be introduced soon after to El Quesir, Lahami, St Johns and Wadi El Gimal. We aim to cover all of the Egyptian Red Sea and so all diving operations and resorts that are interested should contact us.

Everyone can volunteer. We welcome applications from individuals who are divers, snorkelers or regular water users, as well as dive centres and other organisations who are interested in passing on their knowledge of the program. BleachWatch makes a great interactive educational tool for diving and snorkelling guests.

Send an email to bleachwatch@hepca.com to register.

Find out more at http://www.hepca.com/bleachwatch-egypt.aspx

HEPCA teamed up with US-based international environmental nonprofit organization SEACOLOGY to install a series of additional mooring buoys in the 494,100 acre marine reserve section of Wadi El Gimal National Park.

Find out more and read a full report in Sport Diver magazine (UK) at http://www.hepca.com/mooring-wadi-el-gimal.aspx

You can also check out a video of the mooring installation here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6zRJqYkLZQ

The pristine reefs of El Quseir are now destined to stay that way after a unique collaboration between the dive operators in this area and HEPCA.

Back in July, representatives from Sub Aqua, Subex, Ducks Diving, Diving.de, South Red Sea, Extra Divers, Diving Akassia, Pharaoh Dive Club and HEPCA attended an open discussion at the invitation of Utopia Beach Club. They joined together to use their collective knowledge and experience to consider solutions to help the prevention of environmental problems in El Quseir.

Just seven days after the meeting, the HEPCA dive team joined together with the local dive centres to install a series of new moorings and make renovations to the existing mooring system in the El Quseir area. The work in the South between Kilo 10 (Serib Kebir) and Kilo 50 (Erg Malik) was undertaken with support from Ducks Diving and in the North with Subex Diving Center.

In total, 36 mooring lines were installed at 14 dive sites. Extra ropes and shackles were left with the respective dive centres in the area in order that the maintenance and upkeep of the mooring system (now the largest El Quseir has ever seen) can be the responsibility of those who dive here every day.

Thank you to all the dive centres and supporters who helped with this mooring project and proposed other ideas for long-standing environmental issues in the area.