HEPCA, the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association, is by far the most visible environmental actor in Egypt’s Red Sea. I knew this before I arrived in Port Ghalib to visit their Tridacna clam hatchery (though the several USAID-sponsored billboards I passed along the highway were a good reminder of HEPCA’s reach). Theirs is simply a name that pops up in conversations about the Red Sea as though they are a part of its natural environment—like Ras Mohammed or the longimanus. 

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HEPCA formed in 1992 after a concerted effort by several of Hurghada’s diving centers to protect coral reefs from the anchors of dive boats. Their solution was to install fifty mooring buoys across the most popular diving spots, and from this singular focus (which took several years to achieve) the NGO was born. Since then, HEPCA has installed over 900 buoys in what is the largest mooring system in the world. It has also launched many other projects, including solid waste management plants, public awareness initiatives, and conservation campaigns. The Tridacna hatchery I was visiting, the first of its kind in Egypt and the wider region, is part of a marine research center launched in 2016. There I met Ahmed, a young marine biologist who oversees the hatchery.

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