Protecting wartime wrecks at new yacht marinas

Now that the privatisation of 21 new yacht marinas has begun, I thought of helping out those involved with the archaeologi-cal studies and environmental impact assessments with the limited knowledge I have of the areas involved.

Just in case some wrecks are somehow 'overseen' or taken for granted, one should note the following:

At south Manoel Island there is the 30-metre-long wreck of X127, a world heritage wreck as she is one of the few remaining X-lighters of 1915, if not the last one of her kind.

No other X-lighter was built before that year and after 1916. She was sunk on March 6, 1942.

At Kalkara there is a 120-metre-long wreck with several names possibly linked to her identity, namely Margit, MV Odile, SS Adige, and HMS Abington. Though resting in murky waters, she still offers an interesting dive. She was sunk on April 4, 1942.

At Valletta, the wreckage of HMS Maori, or what remains of her original length of 115 metres, lies scattered at Marsamxett Harbour. The wreck, however, still features two large gun mountings and empty, large bullet shells. There is also an abundance of marine life dwelling on and around her. She was sunk on February 2, 1942.

These are all wartime wrecks, and having been underwater for more than 50 years, are classified as underwater cultural heritage in the eyes of local legislation. Besides, worldwide, wrecks are referred to as artificial reefs - they attract and house a variety of marine life.

These wrecks are also located in sheltered areas, and con- sidered as dive site alternatives to prime locations which are more susceptible to bad weather. They ensure contin-uous business to dive schools as well as guarantee uninterrupted diving to tourist scuba divers.

Furthermore, the Menqa area is also known to have been a Roman port once. Now that the site assessors have been informed, there should be no risk of these wrecks falling into oblivion.