Since its establishment in 2010, the Al Salam Diving Club team in Oman cities Liwa and Shinas has been working on several environmental initiatives and volunteer work. They’ve cleaned the seabed and basins of ports from various types of waste.
Hamad al Amri, head and founder of the team, explained to Oman Observer that the ultimate goal of establishing the team is to spread awareness of the importance of the marine environment, maintain its cleanliness and sustainability, as well as promoting the sport of diving among members of the community to attract those interested in this sport to develop their skills and benefit from them in the field of preserving the Omani marine environment.
He added that the team seeks to preserve coral reefs, follow their growth stages and create a suitable environment for the reproduction and growth of fish through the work of artificial marine reserves. He referred to the team’s participation at the Gulf level, most notably the participation in the Gulf Diving Teams Forum in Kuwait in 2013 and 2015 as well as the participation with The Emirates Diving Association in seminars for the preservation of the marine environment and in Arab clean-up campaigns to clean coral reefs and ports, as well as the participation of team members with divers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in coral reef clean-up campaigns.
Regarding the local participation, Al Amri says that several different participations were carried out periodically at the level of the wilayats of the Sultanate in the areas of spreading awareness about diving, in addition to participating in hygiene campaigns in islands and marine reserves.
Al Amri said that the team includes 85 members who provide various community services, from helping fishermen to recover the engines of sunken boats, moving iron cages from their place, as well as helping them to construct marine dams for the reproduction and growth of fish.
He pointed out the team’s participation in the search for drowning cases in cooperation with the competent authorities. the team’s interest in the awareness aspect is recognized through the establishment of guidance campaigns for fishermen about the importance of having a life jacket when going out on fishing trips, in addition to the danger of throwing plastic and fishing waste into the sea, which causes pollution.
“The team works to hold training courses periodically for those wishing to enter this field through training them on diving with modern equipment in cooperation with an international diving organization. participants learn about the principles of diving and the types of equipment used and their functions, in addition to introducing the physics of diving by explaining the risks that the diver may be exposed to when diving, which is coldness, heat, the relationship between pressure, volume and density, as well as knowing the relationship between the disappearance of colors and the movement of water, the formation of sea currents and other basics.
