Benjamin Kahn

Coral and sponges Photo courtesy of Jim Dean

Why is Benjamin Kahn helping?
When Benjamin Kahn was young he loved to go snorkeling with his father in the Red Sea. His favorite part was looking at the wonderful fish, and beautiful coral reef. He came back to that same place in 2000 and was horrified at what he saw. The once gorgeous water was now murky. The toughest of the coral had died out and all the fish were gone. The reef itself was now a sandy, underwater desert.

Scuba divers Photo courtesy of Jim Dean

Why is Benjamin Kahn important?
Benjamin Kahn is a pretty important person when it comes to the environment. He is the chairman of Zalul, Israel’s leading environmental organization for helping bodies of water. He looks in rivers, streams, oceans, and seas to see if they might be polluted or not. If they are not polluted, he leaves them the way they are. If they are polluted, he gets some people to help take out garbage and other stuff that might be polluting it.

Benjamin Kahn has already helped the coral by trying to find ways of re-growing it. After each storm Kahn and his divers give little fragments to 5,000 school kids to grow in their classes. Then the divers carefully glue the coral back into the reef.

But his toughest fight was on land. When his scientists found out that giant fish farmers were dumping tons of uneaten food on the reef he took the owners to court and won.

Coral and sponges Photo courtesy of Jim Dean

Facts on Benjamin Kahn:

His father’s name is Morris and he is a software and a telecommunications billionaire.

Morris studied marine biology.

As a kid, Benjamin loved snorkeling in the Red Sea with his father.

He grew up in Israel.

He is an environmental hero.

He is focused on saving rivers and seas.

He has committed himself to save the coral reefs in Eilat.