Oil pollution and Red Sea tourism lead the list

To help save the reefs of Egypt, get active with these groups:

Arabian Seas Expedition

Atlantis Enterprises

REEFWATCH

GEOMAR, University of Kiel

Das Reef: German scientists explore hidden habitats in a reef wall off Ras Umm Sid, Sinai. Photo: M. Wunsch, courtesy of Center for Tropical Marine Ecology

Egypt's reefs are threatened by pollution from poorly regulated Saudi and Egyptian oil fields and related population centers, as well as the de-ballasting of ships moving through the heavily trafficked Suez region. Lobster are overfished in the Sinai region, and sharks are reportedly declining for unknown reasons.

Increasing tourism is a major stress: Throughout the Red Sea region, sewage and runoff from hotels cause eutrophication problems. Landfilling and sedimentation from tourist development has destroyed large parts of the reefs off Hurghada, and desalinization runoff from hotels in Al Quseir threatens reef health there. Further north, on the Gulf of Aqaba, resort development in Sharm el Sheikh is exploding, and the hotels of Dahab are importing fine sand for their beaches, smothering corals. As tourism grows, peoples' collisions with reefs become inevitable, as when the Royal Viking Sun struck and damaged Red Sea corals in April 1996; Egypt held the Cunard luxury liner until its owners paid a $23.5 million fine later that month.