Red Sea Sustainable Tourism Initiative

Australia is one country that could become a tourist destination, because there we can find a lot of very attractive places, the flight cost is very cheap, so with cheap flights you can go to Australia, for example if you live in Singapore, you can trip to Australia with Singapore Airlines. Or even if you are a local resident you can take advantage of Australia using domestic flights such as jetstar, or you can also use the services of virgin blue airlines, you can fly from one town to another throughout the Australia.

You not to worry for the accommodation, there is one site on the internet that is lastminute.com.au, they have a lot of service, ie. last minute accommodation, with that service you can reserve a hotel room online, you just need to open the menu hotels on their site to get last minute hotels service. Once you end your trip in Australia, it is your time to return to your home, for those of you who live outside Australia you can use the qantas airlines, you also can order online at lastminute.com.au on Flights menu to get last minute flights services from them.

So if you want to travel to austarlia, just be sure to open the lastminute.com.au website, so you can easily reserve a hotel room as well as flights in Australia.

If you want to travelling at red sea, you should prepare everything carefully, from passports, plane tickets, money, and hotel reservations, just after you are certain you have prepared everything, you can to start your tour trip to the red sea.

A lot of tourist attractions in the area, if more than one day you should decide to stay in one hotel in the red sea, when you live and stay in one hotel in the red sea, there is one thing that can make you feel comfortable, especially for those of you who idolize smoke a cigar.  If you forget your favaorit cigar in your preparation, you can buy cigars in one of the famous cigar store was long known in the cigar things.

You can order your favorite cigars at famous-smoke.com, in their store you can order rocky patel cigars that is famous for its rich, creamy, and naturally sweet cigars, you can feel more relaxed and comfortable while you smoke a cigar and enjoy the red sea view from the balcony of the hotel where you stay. You will feel the perfect luxury.

Not just selling Rocky patel, they also offer a black and mild cigars with a variety of flavors ranging from apple, or wine. And you do not have to fear about of their price, because they offers your favorite cigars prices with varying according to your ability to buy cigars.

So do not forgot to visit their shop at famous-smoke.com, and immediately ordered online your favorite cigar to accompany you during a vacation in the red sea.

The 51m wreck of the Hebat Allah was sunk in 2004 and opened as an official dive site in December 2005. It is the first and only artificial reef dive site created in the Hurghada region, and is frequented only by technical divers due to the fact that it lies bolt upright on a flat sandy seabed around 45m depth.

In October 2009, HEPCA divers teamed up with GUE Egypt (Global Underwater Explorers) and Colona Divers in a project to install new moorings to secure the wreck and improve the safety of diving her. It is hoped that more and more technical divers will come to appreciate diving this unique wreck as the ship is almost entirely intact and the accommodation area easy to explore. Her masts rise up to around 15m below the surface.

The Hebat Allah project also recognises the importance of this wreck as an artificial reef in offering a unique marine research opportunity to monitor reef growth from a baseline of her sinking five years ago. An initial assessment of marine life and coral presence was undertaken in October and recorded some extensive fish life including groupers, lionfish, many schooling fish and also a turtle. There were several coral species, including some hard corals, but their current poor coverage is likely to be due to both the depth of the wreck and also the fact that it lies some distance away from an established coral reef.

Going forward, HEPCA and GUE Egypt, with the support of Colona Divers, are intending to dive the Hebat Allah frequently with the following goals of the project in mind:

1. To maintain the constant presence of the mooring lines (previous lines have been lost due to fishing activity and incorrect mooring practices) in order to maximise the Hebat Allah’s potential as a safe and exciting technical diving site

2. To survey and document the coral growth and marine life diversity at depths greater than 35m, thereby using the Hebat Allah as a valuable marine research site, as well as continuous monitoring of the overall condition of the wreck.

Frequent oil spills in the Red Sea off the coast of Egypt kill marine life and damage the environment.
By Joseph Mayton | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor/ November 5, 2009 edition

CAIRO

Egyptian tourism commercials present the Red Sea as an untouched paradise where “the sun shines 365 days a year” and the water is full of exuberant marine life. But the reality is that the beaches and marine life are being destroyed as a result of offshore oil drilling and spills.

On May 20, oil spilled onto the shores just north of the popular resort town of Hurghada, some five hours southeast of Cairo. Although small in comparison with spills elsewhere, more than two-thirds of a mile of sandy beach was covered with crude oil.

According to the country’s environment ministry, workers “moved immediately to the northern coastal region of Hurghada, where they met [oil] company officials to inspect the beach and they found large quantities of crude oil in the form of small pieces along the beach.”

Mahmoud Ismail, the head of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA), is proud of the work his organization does during what he termed “routine oil spills.”

“Our organization is there so we can monitor and help to connect oil companies with the necessary means of clean-up during the routine oil spills that occur in the Red Sea,” he says. “Just look at the most recent one, the beaches were completely cleaned in less than one week.”

But environmentalists point to continuing damage to the Red Sea from frequent “routine” oil spills.

Mr. Ismail says that around the 26 oil fields in the Red Sea, marine life is non-existent due to the almost constant leakage from the antiquated equipment used by oil companies, including such giants as British Petroleum (BP), and ExxonMobil. “Unfortunately, around these major centers of oil exploration, sea life is gone,” he says.

Ahmed al-Droubi, an environmental consultant in Cairo, argues that the situation is much worse than the government is willing to admit. He says that along the coastal region, in addition to the central oil areas, the environmental impact has been near catastrophic.

“If you look at the area along the Red Sea, from Ismailia to Hurghada, these beaches are almost entirely destroyed,” Mr. Droubi says. “What you have are hotels hauling in sand in order to make it appear that this is pristine land, but reality is much different: In and around Hurghada, as a result of the oil, there is no marine life.”

Droubi says that the EEAA does exceptional work, considering what they are up against, but action needs to be taken in order to prevent more damage. “We must see efforts to document and help renew the marine life and the coastal areas, because this is part of our future.”

In 2006, two major oil spills occurred in the Red Sea and inside the Suez Canal at Bitter Lake, where passing ships wait before continuing through the one-lane canal. At least 3,300 tons of heavy fuel oil spilled into the Red Sea on Feb. 20 that year. And in September, 1,100 tons of crude oil poured into Bitter Lake.

Smaller spills, similar to the one in Hurghada in May, occur almost monthly, both Ismail and Droubi confirm.

Ismail concedes that Bitter Lake’s ecosystem is no longer functioning. “Fisheries have died, fishermen can no longer work, but the government has compensated them for their losses,” he adds.

“We have nowhere to go,” says Ahmed al-Zayed, a local fisherman whose family once made a living scouring the depths of Bitter Lake. “When I was a child, my father and I used to go out into the lake and we could catch a lot of fish, but now, because of the oil, there is nothing. I haven’t been out in years and when I talk to friends [about] the Red Sea, they tell me the same thing.”

Droubi argues that there needs to be a law requiring pipes and drilling equipment in the Red Sea to be updated. Ismail concurs, saying that much of the machinery is more than 25 years old.

Although the EEAA now concentrates its efforts mostly on cleaning up after spills, that may change. In early May, Environment Minister George Maged established an advisory committee to look into the pollution caused by oil in the Red Sea and its coastal region.

Source: http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2009/11/05/oil-spills-poison-the-red-sea/