The eastern Mediterranean is the most affected marine bio system of the world by man-made changes. Two major handmade changes have affected the Meditarranean, the construction of the Suez Canal, completed in 1869, and, to a lesser extent, the Aswan High Dam. While the Dam has affected in the stopping of fluvial sedimentation and nutriments to the Mediterranean, leading to a sharp decrease in fish populations; the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 has had ecological impacts far beyond those envisioned by its designers. The older Suez Canal is considered the most important navigation lane in the world as the world’s one tenth trade goes through it. However, its annual revenues didn’t exceed $ US 5 billion dollars. And since it is narrow and not deep enough and goes in on one direction navigation alternatively and with a long waiting period; in spite of expansion and deepening attempts, most of giant ships cannot go through the canal and are forced to turn around the Cape of the Good Hope. All that led to the new Suez Canal plans and construction in an impressive speed and was opened on the 6th of August 2015 and with estimated revenues to exceed 12.5 billion American dollars. ` The canal as the older one connects in the other direction the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, which differ fundamentally both in the bio diversities and hydrographically. The main a-biotic difference between the two regions is the temperature regime, which is stable in the tropical Red Sea but experiences wide fluctuations in the subtropical Mediterranean. The fauna of the Red Sea is of tropical Indo-Pacific origin, while that of the Mediterranean is mainly of temperate Atlantic origin. In the wake of the opening of the Canal in 1869 each sea was exposed to invasion of organisms from the other sea. However, the vast majority of migration has been from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. This influx of biota from the Red Sea into the Mediterranean has been termed “Lessepsian migration”, in recognition of Ferdinand de Lesseps, the engineer and spirit behind the creation of the Suez Canal. The minor migration in the opposite direction is known as “Anti-Lessepsian migration” (you can read our previous article concerning this in greenarea). This handmade change had zoogeographic and ecological impacts far beyond those envisioned by its designers, who only intended to provide a quick trade route from Europe to India and the Far East and by its expansion may harbour more major consequences. Already, researchers estimate that some half of the 700 non indigenous organisms found in the Mediterranean Sea got there via the canal. Some have created extensive problems. For example, the less desirable gold band goatfish have replaced economically valuable native red mullet, while invasive jellyfish have clogged water intake pipes. Experts opinions The biologist James Carlton, a specialist in marine bio invasions with Williams College’s Williams-Mystic program in Mystic, Connecticut described this opening as playing ecological roulette with the Mediterranean. He said that “There are literally hundreds of species that are in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and not if, but when they get into the Mediterranean, the impact could be economically devastating. You have to weigh that against the economic benefits of the new canal. What we don’t want to see is another flood of new invasions”. And he urged the Canal authorities to effective monitoring early detection, and rapid response program, to figure out when and where these invasions occur and before it’s too late. And he feared that ships passing through the Canal can pick up new species and begin to disperse them to other parts of the world, not just the Mediterranean. Another major threat to the Meditarranean that Carlton pointed out is climate change which he called the tropicalization of the Mediterranean, for it’s getting much warmer allowing the invasive species to feel more at home. 2 major scientists Professors Chad Hewitt and Marnie Campbell from the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Waikato from New Zealand also warned that, hundreds of invasive species have already displaced indigenous species and caused serious impacts to the Mediterranean ecosystem along with impacting on commercial activities, recreation and human health; increasing the size of the canal would only exacerbate the problem. And while no environmental assessment has been done, Professor Hewitt says there are several ways to slow the spread of species through the canals, including curtains of air bubbles or building a desalination plant in the vicinity and using the waste – which has an extremely high salt content – to create a dead zone in the canal, which most species would avoid. And she pointed that ” would seem a logical idea. The local people would get clean water and an effective barrier would be created”. While the absence of any environmental assessment breaches several international agreements, including the Barcelona Convention, which aims to protect the marine and coastal environments of the Mediterranean, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which requires states to ensure they do not damage the environment of other states and calls for environmental impact assessments to be undertaken for activities likely to have adverse environmental impacts, and the Espoo convention, which obliges parties to assess the environmental impact of certain activities at an early stage of planning.
