Diving Guide to the Red Sea Wrecks [antikvár]

INTRODGCTIONby Andrea GhisottiIn recent years underwater diving has enjoyed unprecedented popularity. Places once unheard-of - travelled to only by the few dauntless enthusiasts keen enough to undertake a long and adventurous journey - are now within everyone's reach. I cannot help but feel a sense of dismay and concern when 1 think that shipwrecks until only a few years ago undiscovered and chanced upon for the first time with incredible amazement and wonder, are within a matter of months visited by hundreds of divers, as though it were the most normal thing in the world. As in every case where a pastime or sport becomes accessible to all and sundry, precise rules are needed. Divers of the old school always looked upon a wreck as something personal, a discovery that smacked of heroism, an exploration not for the faint-hearted, which therefore entitled them to take possession of any objects they found at the site. Their approach was wrong but damage was limited since visitors were few and far between. What we need to see now is an extremely responsible, civilized attitude. Without this; wrecks are plundered and in the space of only a few months become mere empty structures of little significance. It is clear that people have to change mentality. A sunken ship is extraordinary evidence of past history, hidden for years by the sea, far more effectively than could have happened on dry land. But it is also something unique and unrepeatable, a "museum" which, were it stripped of its contents, would lose much of its significance. It is part of our heritage, a treasure which - since security guards cannot be employed beneath the ocean - is entrusted to the good sense and responsible behaviour of each individual diver. For years I have been campaigning to stop the pillaging of shipwrecks, with results that are regrettably very disappointing. But 1 am still optimistic: a few years ago underwater fishing appeared to be the only possible pastime, today the majority of divers would be far from shooting at the fish which, in tropical oceans, comeA ' Two divers houer above the superstructures of the cargo boat at Zabargad, which lies al a depth of 25 metres. Photograph by Claudio ZiraldoB A diver's torch illuminates the stern of the Ghiannis D a Greek freighter which sank in J983 after colliding with the reef of Sha'ab Abu Nuhas. Photograph by Kurt Amslerswimming trustingly towards them. It is also a question of intellectual curiosity: if divers know the name of a wreck, and its history, if they have perhaps done some research to find out more about it, they will no longer consider it merely an old ship with a few collectibles inside; it will instead be a piece of history to be admired and explored with respect. I want to make a special appeal to the instructors, divemasters and boatmen who accompany divers to wrecks. It is up to you to see that dives to sunken ships are only athrilling experience, not treasure hunts. Remember that the more a wreck remains intact, the more dives you will be able to make to it and the more customers you will have to accompany. Had the ships in the Truk Lagoon, in the Pacific Ocean, been despoiled of the incredible number of objects they contain, nobody would ever dream of making the long and very expensive journey to see the largest sunken fleet in the world. Whereas Truk earns its livelihood from tourism created by scuba diving.