The “i-Dive Tribe” is a community of young scuba divers with one goal: to build an underwater museum in the Red Sea that will help create a new reef. Red Sea marine life, and corals in particular, are threatened by human activities and climate change. Its more than 1,000 invertebrate species and 200 soft and hard coral reefs are exposed to various threats. “The i-Dive Tribe's idea is to install an underwater museum off the town of Dahab by submerging iron and other structures off the coast,” Mohamed Abdel-Latif told the Weekly. This will help provide an environment for the growth of new coral reefs. The founders of the group are Abdel-Latif, Abdel-Rahman Al-Mekkawi and Farah Akram. The “tribe” was started in 2010, when they first put their beliefs into practice. The i-Dive Tribe is not only a school for teaching diving, but also believes in the need to protect the ecosystem of the sea waters. They also give seminars on how to keep the reefs clean and how divers can prevent causing unnecessary damage to the coral. The submerged structures on the seabed have proved to be very successful as patches of hard corals have started to appear in many areas in less than one year. Installing new buoys and replacing the old ones at the lighthouse in Dahab is another project initiated and led by the team. The replacements are intended to mark the entrances and exits of the dive sites and to prevent wind-surfers from endangering divers' lives or destroying coral reefs. “Our main project is to install structures of iron on the seabed to be able to carry marine life,” Abdel-Latif said. These structures are in the form of statues, he said, designed by a professor of fine arts at Luxor University. “Hamed [the professor] creatively carries out all our ideas and transforms them into practice by creating sustainable and sophisticated statues,” he added. “We have noticed that some divers, tourists and even amateurs when snorkeling and diving or doing sports activities in the Red Sea take away parts of the coral reefs, even cutting off entire roots and putting the whole ecosystem in danger,” Abdel-Latif said. “Even though their intentions may be harmless, taking souvenirs from undersea environments can create tragedies for the sea ecosystem.” As part of the new museum, a statue of an elephant has been submerged into the deep blue sea off Dahab. It was created out of 72 per cent recycled materials, including old bikes and shipping debris. It weighs some 800 kilos and is as large as a real elephant. Other statues have also been submerged to support new coral growth, including of the ancient Egyptian god Horus and the cartoon character Pinocchio. “It is the experience of a lifetime to record such events and to feel part of something larger than oneself. Since I am a diver, in addition to being a photographer, it has been a great source of pride to take photographs of such legendary moments,” Ahmed Hayman, a professional photographer and an i-Dive Tribe member, told Al-Ahram Weekly. “The recycled elephant was the most difficult structure to organise, as it took a lot of people to take part in its manufacture and transportation,” he added. I-Dive has also led awareness-raising campaigns on the risk of extinction faced by sea turtles in the region. Some people believe that sea turtles can be eaten for various health problems and, as a result, the species has been hunted. According to i-Dive, new laws are required to help protect them. Moreover, even if the turtles are not being hunted, studies have shown that fishermen often catch dugongs and sea turtles in their fishing nets. There have also been reports that people are collecting turtle eggs. I-Dive is trying to raise awareness of such problems and to lobby for greater protection. Its undersea museum is intended to help protect Red Sea marine life. A tropical coral reef grows horizontally from one to three centimetres (0.39 to 1.18 inches) per year, and vertically anywhere from one to 25 centimetres (0.39 to 9.84 inches) per year. It is important that new structures are provided to help shelter the corals over the years to come. The writer is a freelance journalist.
