Dahab recently had a strong South wind. The water front restaurants got hit hard and alot of debris washed into the bay. Time for a clean up dive. 

H2O got together 14 divers and we split into 2 groups, one went North the other South.  There were cans, bottles and a variety of debris where the seagrass slop leveled out at about 20m.

There were also a number of carpets from the beach restaurants that had been washed into the sea. We where very careful to check nothing had made their homes in them. Sure enough 1 carpet had 4 Peppered Moray Eels living in its folds (1x 30cm 3x10cm-15cm).  We gently coaxed them out before stuffing the carpet in a flour sack.

Back at H2O we started going through the debris and listing it on the dive against debris survey form, when we noticed there where a number of small crab living in the carpets.  We picked them up and returned them to the sea.

In just a few days a number of aquatic animals has made a home for themselves in the carpets, as they where oases of shelter in an otherwise barrow plain of seagrass. By removing the carpets, these animals would have to find new homes; and we possibly missed a small number of tiny crabs that would have perished. 

I think it was best to remove these carpets, which are made from strips of rags woven together by thin cord, as aquatic life would get entangled in the cord as the carpets broke down. Having said that, we did disturb a number of animals which I'm sure would have found alternative, more natural, shelter; a few might have become a meal as they sort to find it, but that's nature. I think, in the long term, more aquatic animals would have perished if we'd left the carpets alone.  Discuss....?  It's the age old question of clean up dives - what to leave and what to remove.

Take a look at: http://www.projectaware.org/sites/default/files/DiveAgainstDebris_DistinctSpecialty_InstructorGuide_Vs1.0.pdf page 20 'Things to leave Behind'

"Consider removing non-natural items that could harm marine animals as they break down into smaller pieces, even if doing so will cause a short-term disturbance. In these cases use your judgement of what action will cause the least harm. Items in this category include hard plastics, fish traps and packaging material."

Till Next Blog, 

Dom.