Artificial Reefs: Ksamil, Albania

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Just south of Saranda is the small city of Ksamil (pronounced SA-meel). It is an adorable beach town with much less traffic and noise than Saranda. Just steps from the beach are 5 artificial reefs, aka shipwrecks. Each of these retired wreckswere cleaned out and then purposely sunk by the US Navy for the Albanian coastline. Certain parts of the coast are only covered with sand and seagrass which only allows for certain organisms to grow. Give the bottom a little structure and all sorts of different species and organisms can flourish. These shipwrecks allow for that structural development, plus they are really cool to dive on!

We only dove on one of the wrecks, bit it was pretty spectacular. The entire wreck was only 18 meters in length, but the water clarity and position of the wreck made it excellent for photos and video. The studentsjob was to map the entire starboard side of the ship, measuring out specific structures and dimensions. Dining that by hand can be very difficult, especially when they are limited on time! Man do these divers need rebreathers!

After the dives, we went back to the hotel to have a lecture from Jeff Royal, one of the co-owners of RPM Nautical Foundation. He is a very interesting person with a ton of maritime information about the Illyrian coast. He discussed all of the shipwrecks found along the old Illyria (now Albania, Montenegro, Croatia). It's incredible how much they have found due to this being a trading coast between the Albanian coast and Italy and Sicily. There are hundreds of shipwrecks and artifacts that are scattered along both coasts. Now the big argument is who owns the wrecks? Why do political boundaries hinder maritime archeologists studies of these wrecks, and why can they not all work together? Politics.

With only 2 more days left in Saranda, and 1 more day in Tirana, I'm going to try to soak up as much culture as I can. Maybe next time I'll get a chance to visit the other Balkan countries.

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