“I thought I saw dolphins on the reef this morning, but as I got closer I realised it was actually a huge plastic bag.” Hossam Abdelaziz’s words were not the sort you’d expect to come from a dive instructor – especially one whose job it is to extoll the beauty of the Red Sea – but then, this was not just any dive centre.
Stationed 280km – a 3.5-hour drive – from the sky rises and all-inclusive chains of Hurghada, the small Egyptian family-owned resort of Marsa Nakari in Marsa Alam has, since its inception, put the environment at the heart of its business plan. While government pressure pushed them to build more rooms, they based their maximum occupancy on what the reef could take without causing a negative impact (and simply appeased officials by putting up tents before surreptitiously removing them a few weeks later). When fossil fuels were heavily subsidised they bucked the trend and implemented solar power to reduce their carbon footprint. Now, while other resorts simply wax lyrical about the beauty of the coral in the waters, Marsa Nakari run a number of conservation programmes to help empower divers to contribute towards the protection of the underwater world while they enjoy it. So it’s perhaps not surprising that Marsa Nakari, along with their other two small properties operating under the banner of Red Sea Safaris, has just been officially recognised as an Eco Dive Center by PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) – one of only 11 in the world.
