In Holtzheim, a former gravel pit transformed into a biodiversity reserve by the diving club

“When we arrived, there was nothing but gravel,” remembers Michel Lambinet in front of the green spectacle of the Fort's gravel pit in Holtzheim.

Its diving club and around thirty others bought this former industrial site ten years ago.

The geological peculiarities of the Rhine Plain make Alsatian quarries bodies of water where the water table is released.

Originally, the mineral site was to serve as a training base for divers in the region.

“We bought a stadium and we end up with a natural park,” smiles Michel Lambinet today.

By dint of eco-responsible facilities and respectful diving postures, nature has regained its rights.

"If the conditions are good, you just have to let it go," explains Serge Dumont, hydroecologist from Strasbourg associated with the project and documentary filmmaker of the aquatic world.

Animal sponges, tall grass ...

With 35,000 passages per year, the freshwater body has become the second diving spot in France, behind that of Niolon, near Marseille.

It attracts divers from Germany, Belgium and Switzerland.

The participatory inventory of biodiversity in progress has already made it possible to document the development of many species, such as animal sponges or tall grass where it is easy to get lost.

Read alsoIn Île-de-France, a diver's paradise opens in Beaumont-sur-Oise

"We have recently been contemplating schools of new white fish at the edge of reeds and rudders", marvels Michel Lambinet. For Serge Dumont, this place with clear waters, without fishing or swimming, is a unique case study. “The depths are home to plant species like nowhere else,” he observes. “This gravel pit is a gift that must be protected,” promises Michel Lambinet.