This move forms part of an ambitious plan from the Chamber of Diving & Watersports (CDWS) to improve sustainability practices within the marine tourism sector around the country. The Green Fins initiative will be implemented nationally in the South Sinai Governorate from September and the Red Sea Governorate from March 2020.

Egypt is a popular holiday destination with 11.3 million tourists visiting in 2018 and 8.3 million in 2017. There are approximately 500 businesses providing diving and snorkelling activities in the Red Sea and an estimated three million divers and snorkelers visiting the region each year.

As conservationists grapple with unprecedented levels of coral reef bleaching in the world's warming oceans, scientists in the Indian and Pacific Oceans used the most recent El Nino of 2016 (the warmest year on record) to evaluate the role of excess heat as the leading driver of coral bleaching.

The findings were, in a word, complicated, according to marine researchers from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups. Specifically, the WCS-led study revealed a more complex view than current standard predictions of coral bleaching events caused primarily by heat stress; rather, the scientists found that bleaching is driven by a variety of stressors, and each region responds differently.