Our News

HEPCA Mooring Team - Caring for the South

The HEPCA mooring team has had a busy season. In the south, our team undertook two maintenance rounds last month: covering the Wadi El Gemal area and El Quseir. The HEPCA mooring team was only successful due to the support of our members, and their proactive stance towards conservation of the Red Sea’s environment. Between the 21st and 25th of July, the mooring team under the lead of Sayed Marzouk carried out a maintenance round in Wadi El Gimal they visited several dive sites including: Dahret Wadi El Gemal, Sha’ab Gubar, Sha’ab Elnos, Shileniat, Shaab Eshta, Gota’ Shileniat and Turfet El Mashahayekh. The team checked the moorings in the area, leaving all functional after replacing two pins, eleven shackles and eleven top reef lines. After finishing the work in Wadi El Gimal, a six day trip to El Quseir kept the team busy. The trip included the surveying of several dive sites including Monica Reef, Erg El Asal, Mea’alag and Sharm EL Quseir El Tahtany. A total of four pins, three mantas, five top lines, six down lines, 22 shackles, five buoys, four chains, one down-line, one top-line and 14 top reef lines were emplaced. Furthermore four complete new systems were established. Two of which were at a new dive site: Erg El Marzouk. Last week the team carried out an assessment expedition in the far south in the area of Satayeh, the team couldn’t resist doing some basic maintenance, and carried out basic repairs on over ten mooring systems. Our team has formulated a plan of action for Satayeh that will be carried out soon. The HEPCA team would like to show appreciation to the Wadi El Gimal Diving Centre for supporting our work by providing their boat during our team’s stay in Wadi El Gimal and the Duck’s Diving Centre, Subex and Utopia for providing support in El Quseir. It is an honour for us to know that we can rely on Red Sea’s diving community. Since 1992 HEPCA has been working on a well-developed mooring buoy system, which nowadays is known to be the largest of its kind in the world. More than 1500 installed buoys have spared the Red Sea’s coral reefs and marine life from anchoring damage. We are very proud of this accomplishment and eager to furthermore improve and enlarge the mooring system, which is essential for the growth and health of our coral reefs; and cannot be done without an aware and proactive community. Please always keep us posted with any missing line and we will do our best to move as swift as possible.