From Mr M. Vella

It is with great anticipation that dive centre operators await the opening of the new and innovative marine adventure park. This enterprise, although not the only solution to the local diving industry’s problems, will definitely enhance our diving product.

Entrepreneurs worth their salt can, with their vision and initiative, put Malta back on the map. Ventures such as these will work wonders towards improving our dwindling fish population, not to mention the leap in quality of the diving product.

It is no secret that Malta, although a popular diving destination, is lagging behind others in marine life diversity. The once populous Mediterranean Sea is now harbouring a fraction of the biodiversity it once possessed.

When I first started diving over 30 years ago, a most common sight would have been large shoals of white sea bream (sargi) in their hundreds and the shy groupers lurking in the shadows when not lying still on a rock, sunning themselves.

These giants measured between one to two metres in length and weighed 30 to 50 kilogrammes. Alas, spotting such creatures is now a rarity, while five to 10 bream are considered a shoal these days.

Although many visitors come here to scuba dive, and our underwater scenery is spectacular, we seriously lack the marine life that scuba divers pay good money to see.

The Adventure Marine Park would address this problem – our miserable fish population – and it would give the avid photographer magnificent subjects that one only dreams of encountering during usual dives.

I am sure that all dive operators will welcome this new venture, as it creates a much-needed new dive site of quality for their customers to enjoy. The marine adventure park will be a magnet for adventurous scuba divers and snorkellers and many will visit our islands just for this experience, once the park is promoted.

Hats off to the park entrepreneurs, as it is such projects, which give impetus to the local economy that will help the diving industry in Malta recover.

To seriously address the problem of dwindling marine life and the fall in the number of visiting divers, we should not stop here. We should embark on an artificial reef programme, as has successfully been done in other countries, limiting and controlling fishing until the fish stocks start to show a healthy recovery.

Two such projects are awaiting the green light from Mepa. These are the scuttling of former AFM patrol boats P29 and P31, which are planned to enhance two popular dive sites in Cirkewwa and Comino. Once under water, these wrecks will offer shelter to numerous fish and other marine life, as has been the case with all the other wrecks we have lying around the Maltese Islands.

For more information about the Marine Adventure Park and the Malta Marine Foundation please visit www.marinefoundation.org

Martin Vella

PADI course director, Subway Dive Centre, Bugibba, Comino Dive Centre, Comino.