The Malta Airport Foundation has launched Submerged World; a mini-series documenting six of the Maltese Islands’ most popular diveable wrecks.

The six-part series has kicked off with an instalment on the tanker Um El Faroud, which was scuttled back in 1998, becoming one of the Maltese Islands’ first artificial reefs and diving attractions. The six-minute episode shows that, over the past 24 years, diversified marine life has colonised the tanker’s decks, making for a most fascinating underwater experience for divers.

“Through Submerged World, we want to promote Malta’s underwater offering to tourists, while increasing the visibility of this remote world among the local non-diving community. Having on board production house Monolith, which is no stranger to documentaries, and Professor Alan Deidun as the executive producer, we are confident that this mini-series will be as visually stunning as it is educational to different audiences,” said Malta Airport Foundation Chairman Josef Formosa Gauci.

“Wrecks are one of the best ways through which man can attempt to turn back time and try to restore elements of the marine environment that have been lost through his actions. By concentrating marine life, wrecks very often act as oases within barren deserts, representing an opportunity for man to give back to nature and thus help to redress the balance,” said the documentaries’ Executive Producer Professor Alan Deidun.

Works are currently underway on the production of the next five episodes of the Submerged World series, which are set to be released between December 2022 and 2023, plunging audiences into varying depths to discover how a war-time aircraft and different vessels with interesting pasts have now become habitats for a myriad of marine organisms.

Submerged World is not the first collaboration between the Malta Airport Foundation, Monolith and Professor Alan Deidun, with the Foundation having already partnered with the award-winning production house and one of Malta’s leading marine biologists on the production of another two underwater documentaries shot in the waters surrounding Filfla and Comino.

The Malta Airport Foundation was established in 2014, with the aim of safeguarding and promoting the Maltese Islands’ environmental, cultural and artistic heritage. You can learn more about the Foundation’s projects, at this link.

Published on: 28.10.22