Bahrain: Underwater Park Opening in August
A vast underwater theme park spanning 100,000 square meters off a Bahraini island city and featuring a sunken Boeing 747 is to open in August, the country has announced. Bahrain is hoping to attract divers from across the globe with the expansive site off Diyar Al Muharraq. Billed as the world’s largest underwater park, its centerpiece is the decommissioned, specially prepared aircraft. Such a feature might be of dubious taste — but that hasn’t deterred the project managers. The subaquatic project is the product of a partnership between the Supreme Council for Environment, Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority, and the private sector.
The diving site will also feature a replica Bahraini pearl merchant’s house, artificial coral reefs and art sculptures. “We are proud to launch this unique eco-friendly project,” the minister announced.
Eco-friendly?
The Boeing will open as a dive site in August 2019. Bahrain but marine specialist Adriana Humanes, who has a Ph.D. in Marine Ecology from James Cook University, Australia and is currently based at Newcastle University in the UK, says that artificial coral reefs are not always ecologically sound.”As corals reefs in good health state become less abundant and divers become more skilled and experienced, artificial reefs have become popular alternatives used by governments and the tourism industry to attract visitors to certain areas of interest,” says Humanes. He says that wreck diving provides “unique, diverse and intriguing diving experiences” — but clarifies that there may be downsides.”Their materials — copper, copper alloys, aluminum, lead and steel, petroleum hydrocarbons and another potential pollutant — can be subject to corrosion, [passing] heavy metals into the seawater and affecting the surrounding marine organisms. “The Bahrain Tourism and Exhibition Agency said the aircraft will be specially prepared before it is lowered into the water.”All aircraft surfaces will be subjected to a high-pressure wash with bio-friendly detergents to ensure all post-production coatings, oil and grime are removed,” a spokesperson told CNN Travel.
Aircraft turned artificial reef
1/14Aircraft revitalized: What happens to an aircraft when it retires from service? From hotels to furniture to a second life in Australia, there are a surprising number of options. Courtesy Air Salvage Bahrain’s proposition is not the first time an airplane’s been deliberately sunk to create a diving attraction. In the United States, a Boeing 727 jet was sunk off the coast of Miami in 1993. It was damaged during Hurricane Gordon in summer 1995. Meanwhile at Mermet Springs in Illinois, a Boeing 727 that featured in the 1990s movie “U.S. Marshals” now lies below water and forms part of a popular diving site. In Turkey, an Airbus was lowered into the waters off the Aegean coast a couple of years ago to become an artificial reef. From the Maldives’ underwater hotel — where you can enjoy the marine view without getting wet — to America’s underwater museum, located off the coast of Florida, where divers can explore striking statues and sculptures.