Located in the middle of the Straits of Tiran between Tiran Island and the Sinai Peninsula, the Gordon Reef is the largest of a chain of four coral reefs which lie just off the coast of the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt. Since 1981, it has been marked by the wreck of a commercial freighter called Loullia which ran aground off the jagged edges of the Gordon Reef while sailing from Aqaba, Jordan to the port city of Suez. The wreck itself is in a state of decay and is slowly tilting into the sea, something that is much anticipated by diving enthusiasts. Tourism, in fact, is a major industry in the Red Sea as it is the northernmost tropical sea in the world, which also makes it the closest tropical destination to many tourists coming from OECD countries.
The increased popularity of coral reefs in the Red Sea, as well as their abundance of marine biodiversity, has led to the extremely rapid growth of many tourist resorts, most notably in and around the city of Sharm El-Sheikh. Currently, the area around the Gordon Reef is supposed to be protected from degradation as it forms a part of the Ras Muhammad National Park which was established in 1983 as a marine reserve for the protection of marine and terrestrial wildlife. However, since tourism in the Red Sea generates a lot of revenue for the struggling Egyptian economy, there currently isn’t much political will to try to protect the coral reefs from further degradation.
Even more perilous to the survival of the Gordon Reef is the proposed Saudi-Egypt Causeway, a 4 billion US dollars project that would link the Egyptian city of Sharm El-Sheikh with Saudi Arabia. While the exact route has yet to be announced, the 32-kilometer bridge and causeway would pass through three protected islands, including Tiran Island, and over the Straights of Tiran, directly putting the Gordon Reef at risk. The increased traffic would also cause a massive spike in the levels of pollution and waste. In a recent January 2013 visit by the Saudi Foreign Minister to Egypt, both countries reiterated their interest in going forward with the construction of the Saudi-Egypt causeway to bolster economic ties between the two. With both the increase in tourism and the proposal of a causeway across the Straights, the degradation of the Gordon Reef seems sure to be the likely result.
