Zalul Environmental Association invites you to join us in cleaning up the beaches of Eilat!

On Tuesday, May 5, 2009 we will be meeting across from Mall HaYam in Eilat at 16:00 to begin the fun.

Don't forget to invite your friends and family- the more the merrier...and cleaner!

After a long and difficult battle between environmentalists and the fish cage companies, the fish cages will finally be removed from Eilat at the end of the month. Zalul, founded in 1999 to save and protect the Red Sea and has since expanded to include all of Israel's sea and rivers, led the fight the past 10 years to remove the polluting fish cages from the sea.

Attorney General Meni Mazuz stood with Zalul Environmental Association on the subject of the removal of the fish cages from the Gulf of Eilat and denied the request of the General Manager of the Prime Minister's office, Raanan Dinor, to delay the removal of the fish cages.

This Passover, Zalul held a drawing competition for Eilat children with the theme "We love and protect our coral reefs". Zalul Association along with Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the newspaper "Erev Erev" and the radio station "Kol Hayam Haadom" invited young people living in or visiting Eilat during Passover 2007 to take part in the drawing competition and win cool prizes! Everyone ages 3-15 who were in the Eilat region during the Passover holiday were encouraged to participate and draw different drawings of the coral reef and the marine environment of the Gulf of Eilat. Now the winning entries are touring the country to remind people how important our coral reefs are. Not just for us, but also for future generations.

After many years of demonstrations, legal battles, court decisions, and committee decisions, the government has finally decided to save the national treasure of Israel's coral reef and remove the fish cages from the Gulf of Eilat. This precedence setting government decision from June 2005 ordered the polluting fish cage (marine culture) to remove their operation from the water by 2008 – one third each year from 2006-2008.

Zalul Association, Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority, PADI, the Ministry of Environment and Ocean Foundation organized the biggest underwater clean-up in the history of the Gulf of Eilat.

This and many more quotes appear on the dozens signs that are now hanging in dive clubs around Eilat. Zalul along with a group of volunteers created the signs in order to make divers more aware of the impact they have on the sea life in the coral reef.

After a long battle in which the Eilot Regional Council demanded the area called the "Sun Gulf" for the purpose of marine-culture in an attempt to bypass the decision of TAMA 13 (national building plan) to remove marine-culture from the Red Sea, the Borders Committee decide to adapt Zalul's stance and not to allow the land exchange.

Several weeks ago the government came to a decision to accept Zalul's and the other environmental organizations' position to remove the fish cages from the Gulf of Eilat in three stages over the course of three years.

Zalul Organization exclaimed in response to the government meeting decision to remove the fish cages gradually within three years:

This is a big win for the coral reef, the environmental organizations and the justice of the law. The government came to a decision that is beneficial to all. The coral reef will be able to recover and the fish farmers will have sufficient time to find an environmentally friendly way to grow their fish.

In the last 15 years, there have been fish farms in north Eilat Bay bred in tanks that raise around 2500 ton of Denis fish annually. To raise such quantity of fish, the fish farms consume around 5000 ton of food annually, which is discharging into the water of the Bay of Eilat. This enormous amount of food, some, which could not be digested by the fish, combined with the natural fish secretions cause contamination of the Bay water of thousands of tons of waste every year.The international scientists’ team report, formed at the time by the director’s committee, which discussed this issue, held explicitly that the fish tanks are the main polluters of Eilat Bay and that around 97% of the nutrients and nitrates released into Eilat Bay originate from the fish tanks.

On April 12, 2004 the national program for monitoring the Gulf of Eilat publicized their report stating that there is a serious decline in the condition of the coral reef.

These past few days, Zalul organization began a new campaign regarding the removal of fish cages in the Gulf of Eilat. This national campaign will be carried out for three weeks until receipt of the government's approval.