UMM AL QAIWAIN- The Dubai Voluntary Diving Team is an example of how to benefit from relevant skills and capacities to serve the marine environment and the community, through the various activities it performs.
The team has worked with the Department of Tourism and Archaeology in Umm Al Qaiwain over ten months to complete phase one of the excavation of the ship, Dara, by cleaning debris from the location where the ship sank.
Abdullah bin Mohsen, Founder of the Team, said that the team’s members worked a total of 194 volunteer hours over ten months, completing 20 diving trips and recovering over eight tonnes of debris and old fishing nets that were on the Dara, which sank in 1961 close to the coast of Umm Al Qaiwain.
He established the team in 1995 as the "Divers Team," which then included several fishermen who had a passion for the sea, diving, discovering fishing locations and the deep sea to protect the environment, he added, noting that the team conducted trips to clean diving locations after the end of the fishing season. The team’s members continued to grow in number and its activities increased, and in 2012, its name was changed to the "Dubai Voluntary Diving Team," he further added.
The team’s members share the passion for volunteering to protect the marine environment from pollution, as well as to promote the culture of volunteering and environmental awareness, and clean and remove harmful substances from the sea, he stressed.
"Dara, which sank close to the coast of Umm Al Qaiwain, has become an important part of the marine environment in our waters, and our initiative to cooperate with the department reflects the importance of volunteering and environmental responsibility to preserving the marine environment," he further said, noting that the team’s members dived to the sunken ship’s location every week basis to recover debris, including old fishing nets and ropes.
© Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2020.
