Emperor Divers 리뷰

Tammi, Carrol & the Sharm Team

Thank you for the review, we are always happy to hear comments from guests. While we are of course delighted to hear positive comments, we also appreciate criticisms as it allows us to identify areas to improve our service and operation. I have investigated your comments as some of the issues you raised concerned me greatly. Emperor Divers were one of the founding centres and I personally am a trustee of HEPCA, who are the largest NGO responsible for environmental protection in the Egyptian Red Sea. As a diver and underwater photographer I am passionate about ecology and environmental protection. I feel that the result of my investigation shows you have been unfair to Emperor Divers with some of your comments in that they related to other operators boats. I note that, having talked to your first guide, Mikaela, on your first day you had identified some other boats (liveaboard boats not connected in any way to Emperor Divers) were cleaning inside the bay, Marsa Mubarak (aka Imbarak, aka Umm El Roos) and that you had witnessed some poor diving practices by divers outside of our diving group, notably a male diver with a green and black wetsuit who was touching the corals while taking photographs. Cleaning the boats with chemicals within bays is ill advised, however sadly this practice can sometimes still be seen happening. In the past crews were not allowed to clean inside the marina however I was actually present and actively involved in the meeting between Port Ghalib Marina and the Marine Parks of Egypt when we received permission to clean inside the marina, therefore removing the necessity to do it outside. As a consequence all of our boat captains have been advised never to do it, and I am satisfied that after investigating your comments with the guide it was not our crews and our boats you witnessed on that day. I hope you appreciate that as a team, we can push for changes in local attitudes and control our own people, but we are not an enforcement agency and cannot immediately alter the behaviour of other operators. With regards to the diver behaving poorly, there are some guides in the team here who may have felt capable to approach a diver from outside of their responsible group to correct behaviour – I am one – but not everyone is capable of that. I think you can see that it may be difficult for someone as petite as Mikaela to swim up to a fully grown man whom she has never met before to dress him down underwater. The first dive you did on your first day, the inside North of Marsa Mubarak is also called ‘Madrassha’. It is used heavily as a training site, snorkeling site, check dive site and sometimes, especially in rough weather, it is one of the only reefs available to dive. This is also where the larger boats moor and as you saw often clean. As a consequence the stretch of corals inside the North reef, are admittedly not in great shape and we even state this on our dive site description on our website. This is why we favour this site for check dives were we can assess how competent a diver actually is. It is still a favoured dive of many repeat gusts though as the fish and critter life is diverse and fairly abundant. Mubarak however has 7 dives available to it and I see that despite the guide assuring you that the second dive would really show it’s beauty you declined to dive. There are 3 dives within the area of Mubarak – Panorama, Farsha Sahab and Habili Gooda, which have some of the best condition coral gardens I have been witness to – and not just in the Red Sea - think pinnacles topped with table corals and immaculate Porites gardens as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately over 2 of your days you declined the opportunity to dive 2 of those sites, and I really wish you had gone in to see a truer reflection of Marsa Alam diving. I see that you went to Ras El Torfa on your second day, which is a small area further South, and that you were very happy with the coral condition, as are we. This is a site that is exclusively visited by daily diving operators such as Emperor, which is another reason why I think you have been unfair to comment that the consequences of the actions of others including independent snorkeling boats and transient liveaboard boats can be attributed to us. You didn’t mention this site in your review. I really wish you would have engaged me in some dialogue about your concerns as I would have been very happy to discuss our local ecology and environmental efforts with you. I am always available to speak to guests who have comments of any kind, and I was down at the marina on your second and last day and would have loved the opportunity to talk to you. For example, I feel a fairer reflection of our environmental efforts is that we actually don’t serve fish of any kind on our daily trips as it is impossible to find certified sustainable fish in Marsa Alam and the emphasis we place on environmental points during our boat briefing (timing of toilet flushes, garbage removal, feeding of fish, glove and touching policy to name but few). We were instrumental in identifying and naming the local dugong population and invited DIVE magazine over to complete a piece focusing on the plight and perils facing the wonderful creature inhabiting Mubarak (please look for this – the magazine is available digitally free of charge and it is the cover story from a few months ago). Leading on from this and most aptly, we have been at the forefront in trying to push the local authorities to create a code of conduct and enforcement of proper behaviour (safety and environmental) specifically in the popular areas of Marsa Shouna and Marsa Mubarak. I am pleased to tell you that in the past days there has even been a response and decree signed by the Red Sea governor to enable agencies such as HEPCA protect the resource of Mubarak, and the details will be available on HEPCA’s website within the next few days. I am available to contact on manager.marsa@emperordivers.com if you would like any further information about these developments, or if you have any comments to make about my response and I will only be too happy to share my knowledge with a fellow diver and conservationist. Your review is your opinion however I hope after reading this heartfelt response from me you may be inclined to edit and clarify your comments with relation to Emperor Divers thus providing a fairer reflection of the company and what is actually available here in Marsa Alam for other divers researching the area. With kind regards, Luke, Manager manager.marsa@emperordivers.com

Wow that's fantastic - I'm so glad you had a great trip and enjoyed some good sightings, and yes it is rare to see groups of Eagle rays but they make an impressive sight in formation! Hope to see you here again soon for some more dives! Luke, Manager manager.marsa@emperordivers.com

and we're glad to be part of a memorable week. We can't wait for you to come back either, see you soon, Luke, Manager manager.marsa@emperordivers.com