The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) represented by Natural Reserve Department has launched a campaign to clean coral reefs along Sealine Beach, located at southeastern coast of the country.
Under the slogan ‘Together We Care About Our Coral Reefs’, the campaign was held in cooperation with a number of agencies and institutions in the country, headed by the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya), the Al Ghais Center for Diving and the ReefTech for the Production of Industrial Coral Reefs and some volunteer divers, said the Ministry in a press release.
On this occasion, Mohamed Yousef Al Jaida, an expert and environmental adviser at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and the general supervisor of the campaign, said that first campaign to clean coral reefs at Sealine Beach was launched in 2009, where 101 industrial coral reefs were placed at Sealine Beach and 440 coral reefs in the sea.
He pointed out that through its follow-up during the past years, the growth of a number of water weeds were observed, which is a pest that may harm coral reefs by the time and affect coral growth, so this campaign was organised in cooperation with a number of agencies in the country to move and arrange coral reefs and clean them from weeds.
He pointed out that cleaning the coral reefs from these pests will provide an opportunity for the rapid growth of these coral reefs by 70%, as a number of natural coral will be cultivated after the process of cleaning the existing coral reefs.
He added that the ministry is making great efforts to preserve coral reefs as part of its plan to preserve the seabed of the territorial waters of the State of Qatar from pollutants that lead to the deterioration of marine life, such as coral reefs that are affected by human pressures and other pollutants.
He stressed on the need to preserve coral reefs as one of the integrated environmental systems that are of great economic and tourist importance. He explained that the team that carried out the work has about 50 divers involved in the cleaning campaign from the various participating agencies.
In the same context, Captain Dhafer Nasser Al Hajri, Commander of the Naval Intervention Company in the Special Unit of the Lekhwiya, said that the Lekhwiya Force participated to provide necessary support to the Ministry of Municipality and Environment in cleaning the coral reefs. He confirmed that the participating teams of Lekhwiya strength are equipped with qualified, trained and highly qualified teams in carrying out diving and rapid intervention operations.
First Lieutenant Fahd Sultan Al Hajri, a diving officer at the Qatar International Search and Rescue Group said that the Lekhwiya force participated in 20 divers to provide support and assistance in the campaign, in addition to a marine rescue team and a medical team to ensure the safety of all and maintenance technicians to provide the necessary support to the divers involved in the campaign.
Mahmoud Al Mallah, Director of Al Ghais Center for Diving said that their participation in the cleaning campaign comes within the framework of caring and coral reefs, which is an important point to attract tourism in Qatar. He pointed out that the center participated in providing the necessary support during the campaign by providing diving tools for divers participating in the coral clean-up campaign.
