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Egyptian liveaboard operators have known as for a grace interval earlier than new rules regarding crew {qualifications} are enforced.
Commercial
The request comes after plenty of liveaboards had been cancelled or held in port resulting from a clampdown by authorities within the second half of December following within the wake of the Sea Story sinking, during which 11 folks misplaced their lives.
The sticking level is a requirement in current rules that stipulates that of the 2 engineers required to be current on each liveaboard, at the very least one should maintain a sophisticated engineering license – and there’s a large shortfall within the variety of engineers who’ve accomplished the 20 day course.
Egyptian newspaper Ahram On-line stories that of the 1200 personnel required to help greater than 200 liveaboards and a couple of,000 different dive and snorkel boats, solely 88 crewmen presently maintain the required qualification.
Because of this, a few of these people have begun charging extortionate costs for his or her providers – unconfirmed stories recommend as a lot as a yr’s wage for a single voyage – understanding that liveaboard journeys must be cancelled if their calls for are usually not met.
The superior engineer’s course is a 20-day programme and certification takes roughly six weeks. Whereas this in itself shouldn’t be an insurmountable impediment – albeit with a time delay – Ahram On-line stories that the coaching programme has not been provided by the Egyptian authorities since 2023.
This doesn’t imply that Egyptian boat crews are staffed by untrained engineers. Most have years of sensible expertise behind them, they only haven’t been via the official programme with a purpose to obtain the superior certification.
Whereas little data has been forthcoming as to the general results of the brand new regulatory enforcement, a fast search of liveaboard reserving brokers reveals a shortfall in obtainable journeys for January.
The general impact could also be ameliorated considerably by the timing of the clampdown, as January and February is off-season for Egyptian dive tourism and subsequently the time when boats are despatched to drydock, if mandatory.
However, there have been plenty of journey cancellations, and divers already in-country on the time the brand new enforcement order got here into impact have reported being held in port or disembarked and placed on swiftly organized dayboats.
Scuba diving is a big a part of Egypt’s vacationer financial system and it has weathered many challenges through the years, from terrorist bombings to shark assaults that made worldwide headlines, the 2011 revolution and the most important losses suffered in the course of the Covid pandemic.
With a succession of broadly reported liveaboard disasters during which at the very least fifteen lives have been misplaced in simply the final two years – and which have now obtained the eye of worldwide maritime security businesses – the highlight shall be firmly on the Egyptian authorities to make sure that observable adjustments are made to liveaboard security within the instant future.
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