BleachWatch Egypt is a development from BleachWatch, a community based coral reef monitoring program developed by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GRBMPA), Australia, during a mass bleaching event in 2002. The concept is based on a volunteer network of people who regularly visit reefs and report on their health. Over the years BleachWatch has become a key component of GRBMPA’s coral bleaching response plan and is an excellent example of a successful partnership between the community and reef managers in detecting large scale coral bleaching.Coral reef monitoring acts as an early warning system for potential bleaching, which is a natural response to environmental stress. It encourages all those with an interest in the ongoing health of the reefs to take a sense of ‘ownership,’ and is also useful as an interactive educating tool for diving and snorkelling visitors to the Red Sea.The first step of BleachWatch Egypt is to introduce and launch the monitoring program at five locations along the Egyptian Red Sea coast: Marsa Shagra, El Quseir, Lahami, St Johns and Wadi El Gimal.BleachWatch Egypt was recently introduced at the Red Sea Diving Safari in Marsa Shagra, and a team of volunteers has also received training as part of the Climate Change workshops in Hurghada and Marsa Alam. Further workshops and an introduction to BleachWatch will be introduced in El Quesir, Lahami, St Johns and Wadi El Gimal later this year. We aim to have representation over all of the Egyptian Red Sea.Join our program! Email bleachwatch@hepca.com to register.
Short introduction to Bleach Watch and coral bleaching
Form to identify if and in what dimension coral bleaching occured
Short description on Bleach Watch and how people can help