A scuttled car ferry has put Cyprus on top of Europe’s best dive list
IN RECENT years scuba diving has swam to the top of the league when it comes to recreational sports making it a lucrative market that, perhaps surprisingly, Cyprus has the chance to tap.
Tumbling off the side of a boat into the sea whilst coated in a complex amalgam of rubber, metal, and tubing, doesn’t exactly come cheap, and tourist organisations all over the Mediterranean, Caribbean and Asia are falling over themselves to tempt these well off travellers to explore their hidden depths.
Divers can now dive in the Bikini Atoll of the Marshall Islands to investigate the wreck of the USS Saratoga, an aircraft carrier longer than the Titanic, along with a submarine and other US destroyers all sunk during World War II, for a hefty price tag of 6,000 euros. Mantas, leopard sharks and coral-encrusted slopes, meanwhile, are on offer along the coast of Thailand’s the Surin and Similan islands. In Borneo the Sipadan Island is home to green turtles and the rare mandarin fish, while shark feeding frenzies can be seen off Cocos Island.
So with all this piscatorial exotica on offer what can experienced divers realistically expect when they come to Cyprus on a diving holiday, especially now we have over fished the coast lines, there is little or no coral left, and the sponges that once carpeted the sea bed have long disappeared?
Marine biologists have recorded 260 different fish species which frequent the waters off Cyprus, but they now do so only in very low numbers. Over fishing in the recent past from the massive factory ships has been a major cause as these vessels would literally ‘net-out’ huge areas of the sea in order to catch tuna and other saleable fish, but capturing in the process tons of other species, contributing massively to the huge damage done to our fragile marine eco system.
On the bonus side we do have crystal clear water and rocky sections of coastline, submarine cliffs, and valleys, but despite all this the island cannot be described as a diving paradise, at least not in terms of marine life.
This was confirmed by Swedish-born Mikael Esping an experienced diver who has just spent two weeks on the island (mostly underwater).
“Some of the dive sights are excellent in that there is always great visibility, but what you see is mainly sea grass, the odd grouper or soldier fish,” he said.
Altogether there are about 103 dive sights around the island.
“Yet, many of these are worth visiting though as there are good rock formations, crevasses, chimneys and walls. But the real jewel in the crown has to be the wreck of the Zenobia just outside the Larnaca harbour,” he said. “That’s why I have come to dive, as it’s listed in the world diving tables as the number one dive sight in Europe.”
Zenobia, or the Big Z as divers refer to it, is the 178-metre long Swedish-built roll-on roll-off car ferry scuttled as a shipping hazard in 1980 after a ballast tank flooded. It now rests in 25 metres of water cloaked in algae and seaweed. It’s become a recognised dive paradise for those who relish wreck diving because the vessel went down in tact, still carrying its cargo of 104 lorries with attached trailers. It’s estimated that the cargo was worth something in the region of 200 million euros.
Here divers can get first class Kodak moments along with encounters with barracuda, scorpion and trigger fish as the Zenobia in its demise has effectively provided a man-made haven for fish and other marine life.
“To come all the way from Stockholm to dive the Zenobia site was more than worth it,” said Esping. “You could easily spend two weeks there and still only investigate a fraction of the ship.”
Many countries are now purposely sinking yachts, helicopters, and cargo vessels off their shores to encourage these man-made shelters for marine life. They first remove all the environmentally dangerous stuff from the machines, let them sink to the seabed and nature then takes over, giving sea life a protected environment and divers something to enjoy.
It is a tactic that Photos Socratous, managing director of Cydive in Paphos and president of the Cyprus Diving Association, is actively promoting.
But couldn’t the concept of creating man-made reefs to lure fish court future problems if less enlightened fishermen start dumping old fridges, bikes, cookers and cars into the ocean in an effort to create a future bumper harvest of fish?
“We have our first sample unit in place where we have laid concrete blocks in such a pattern by experts that already we have marine life using this area as a shelter and as a breeding ground,” said Socratous. “This is going to be a strictly run government initiative in association with the dive association and marine scientists, with four areas of artificial reefs and another four consisting of wrecks that will be sunk.”
Not all divers want to wreck dive, some just enjoy seeing marine life so Socratous hopes these eight areas will offer something special to both categories of divers.
“The zones selected will be in a no activity zone and anyone trying to fish there will be arrested,” he said. “It’s a project we need to undertake now as it might take about two years before Mother Nature completely takes over these man-made areas.”
With an estimated 20 million divers now registered worldwide, advances in safety is a major reason why scuba diving has become so popular.
“Only a few years ago it wasn’t such an accessible hobby, it was really only open to adults,” said Socratous. “But these days with advanced equipment and improved standards of safety and comfort, we can now offer even eight-year-olds a first taste of breathing under water. My son Pascal aged 10 is now a qualified diver.
“Like any sport if you catch them young, they get so enthused by the experience they want to keep diving right through to middle and old age.”
