Iran has closed the sea lane to foreign ships, attacking commercial vessels and disrupting around 20% of global oil transport by sea. Some 20,000 sailors found themselves stranded in the Persian Gulf. The UN Secretary-General called for an immediate ceasefire.
Meanwhile, below the surface, the fish continued to swim.
Back in the water
Three Chinese divers based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – Rui Li, a diving instructor; Shanshan Du, a freediver; and Jie Zhang, a technical diver – have been deprived of diving for weeks due to the closure of coastal areas. When a ceasefire allowed limited access in mid-April, they immediately returned to the water.
World Oceans Day, celebrated each year on June 8, has the theme this year: “Rethinking our relationship with the ocean”. For these three divers, this new way of considering the link with the ocean is anything but abstract.
“We were actually a little worried before we left,” says Shanshan Du, who dove the narrowest passage between the United Arab Emirates and Oman on April 18, just days after the UN welcomed Iran’s announcement that the strait would open to commercial shipping during the ceasefire.
“But after more than two months, we all found it great to be able to dive again. We came across a large group of dolphins. The atmosphere of war that I imagined was absent; I had only peace and beauty before my eyes.”
Jie Zhang, who dived in this area just last week, describes a coral diversity rarely observed elsewhere: soft and hard corals varying according to the topography, and sea turtles gathered in such large numbers that the site evoked a nature reserve.
Jie Zhang has returned from the depths and feels the warmth of the sun.
Worrying signs
She also noticed something more worrying. “I saw more white debris on the seabed than before,” she said, without knowing its origin. And when she and her companions followed dolphins near the eastern part of the strait, the water surrounding the animals was streaked with green algae, oil vapor and floating trash.
“I remembered that when I followed dolphins, the water was blue. Seeing this spectacle with my own eyes always breaks my heart.”
Rui Li takes care to take these two realities into account simultaneously. The strait is not the most biodiverse marine area in the world, he notes, but its complex topography is home to coral reefs of exceptional variety – formations “as white as silver needles” alongside colonies “as purple as pine forests”. — as well as seahorses, whale sharks and species rarely seen elsewhere.
He describes seeing a boat captain who, without being able to dive or having other means of communication, managed to locate a group of dolphins who seemed to recognize him. “We greeted each other, then everyone went their separate ways,” explains Rui Li. “This place is truly magical.”
View of the Strait of Hormuz from the Musandam Peninsula, Oman.
A potential disaster
However, he is also fully aware of the consequences that an armed conflict could have on such a place. An attack on oil storage facilities, he points out, would be catastrophic for marine life. “Many marine organisms are small and vulnerable. A single attack could be enough to wipe out extraordinary species that humans have never seen.”
Jie Zhang describes the vulnerability of the underwater world: “No one can speak for the underwater ecosystem; neither fish nor large animals can express themselves.”
“We dump all the conflicts, wars and pollution of the land into the ocean, forgetting that it has no real capacity for self-protection and that it is condemned to suffer all the conflicts and damage caused by human activities.”
The dive quietly shook certain certainties in these three people. “Underwater, the ocean knows no boundaries,” says Jie Zhang. “Marine currents and schools of fish circulate freely. When they move, whale sharks follow precise routes crossing different countries: they are free. Humanity should share this blue world instead of tearing it apart with conflicts.”
Rui Li forms a heart with his hands pointing towards him. This gesture also corresponds to the “OK” signal in the sign language of diving.
The ocean, this nourishing mother
Rui Li favors another metaphor – warmer and perhaps more lucid about the limits of human action. The relationship between human beings and the sea is similar, according to him, to that which unites a child to his parent: the ocean supports us, nourishes us and, sometimes, punishes us.
“We have grown up and now feel the desire to protect it,” he says, “but our real room for maneuver remains limited. Our parents continue to wait for us patiently, to help us and take care of us.”
While diving in a country where people of dozens of nationalities live, Shanshan Du discovered that, underwater, borders lose all importance. Communication is established only through gestures. “Thanks to this leisure activity and the ocean, a wonderful environment has been created for us.”
The conflicts raging on the surface have not stopped. Talks between Washington and Tehran remain fragile and the situation unstable. However, the ocean covers 71% of the earth’s surface; also, as Rui Li says to anyone who hasn’t seen it yet: come and touch this refreshing water any chance you get.
