September 29, 2020
Egypt’s Fight To Preserve Coral Reefs In The Red Sea
News Source: Euro News
Author(s): Marianne Dhenin
Off the coast of Egypt, the waters of the Red Sea are home to some of the most productive and diverse coral reefs in the world.
But the high concentrations of tourists in cities along the Red Sea contribute significantly to plastic pollution, which threatens the region’s marine life.
A recent move toward zero plastic tourism in Egypt’s Red Sea region plans to protect marine life and preserve one-of-a-kind resort destinations like Hurghada and Sharm el-Sheikh for generations to come.
PLASTIC POLLUTION IS DESTROYING OUR OCEANS
As many as thirteen million metric tons of plastic are dumped into oceans around the world each year, according to research from Pew Charitable Trusts. When plastic gets into the sea, it endangers fish, seabirds, sea turtles, and marine mammals, which can become entangled in or ingest debris and then suffocate, starve, or drown. Plastic rubbish also damages coral reefs, as the bacteria that causes white band disease, which destroys coral tissue, can colonise and spread via plastics.
When plastic debris settles on coral, it also creates the perfect conditions for another lethal infection called black band disease. In the Red Sea, plastic pollution threatens more than a thousand species of colourful fish and coral, about ten per cent of which are endemic to the Red Sea, meaning they are not found anywhere else in the world.
The team turned their research into a proposal for a ban on the production and use of single-use plastics in the Red Sea Governorate in spring 2019, and governor General Ahmed Abdullah, put the proposal into law in April. It went into effect the following June.