3/8/2006 -- Red Sea, Skin Divers and Researchers = Defend It

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Red Sea, Skin = Divers and=20 Researchers Defend It

Source: Copyright 2006, Agenzia = Giornalistica=20 Italia
Date: August 3, 2006

Obtain information of the state of marine biodiversity in the = area of=20 Sharm el Sheikh thanks to the collaboration of skin divers that = are on=20 holiday; promote environmental education and provide a = contribution to the=20 development of sustainable tourism. These are the goals of the = research=20 "Scuba Tourism for the Environment- Red Sea Biodiversity = Monitoring=20 Program". It is a five-year project devised by the Department of=20 experimental and evolutionary biology of the University of Bologna = that=20 will take place at Sharm and at Hurgada, in Egypt. Starting in = 2007 around=20 100 thousand pamphlets a year will be distributed in hotels and = diving=20 schools in various languages. The first part of the pamphlet is = dedicated=20 to respecting nature: recommendations and advice to not ruin the = coral=20 reef. In the second part there are pictures of fish and vegetable = species=20 chosen by the researchers because they are easily identifiable. In = the=20 end, a third section for observation: here the skin divers report = the=20 organisms observed in immersion including those in the previous = photos.=20 The project is financed by a total of 170,000 euro donated to the=20 University of Bologna from the Egyptian minister of tourism, from = ASTOI=20 (Association tour operator italiani) and from Project AWARE = Foundation, an=20 important Swiss foundation for the support of marine nature (for = the first=20 time it decided to finance a multi-year project.) SSI, SNSI, the=20 underwater didactics agencies and ULP, the environmentalist = association,=20 will bear the press expenses for the observation pamphlets (for = more=20 information go to www. marinesciencegroup.org and = www.STEproject.org ).=20 The magazines Tuttoturismo and Quark will divulge the reserach,=20 contributing to the involvement of the skin divers. In sum, it is = a=20 perfect union between the world of university research and excited = tourist=20 skin-divers. "Two million Italians go to Egypt every year - = explains=20 Stefano Goffredo, one of the inventors of the project - and half = of them=20 visit the coral reef. Thus, our goal is to involve the citizens in = the=20 monitoring of the environment and increase citizens' awareness of = nature=20 so as to improve the impact of tourism on the environment." This=20 methodology in the U.S. is called "science of citizens" and was = not a=20 novelty for the researchers from the University of Bologna. It was = already=20 used in 1999-2001 in another project, "Mission Hippocampus = Mediterranean"=20 and in 2002-2005 in "Skin diving for the Environment". 20 thousand = pamphlets were filled out in this last research in all of Italy = (10% was=20 rejected). Around 4 thousand people participated for a total of 15 = thousand hours of emersion and a savings of 4 million euro. For = the same=20 investigation a single biologist would have committed 35 years of = his=20 life.

Originally posted at:=20 = http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=3D200608031624-1132-RT1-CRO-0-N= F51&page=3D0&id=3Dagionline-eng.arab

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