LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Suez Canal: Mediterranean Sea
built 605 days ago
Evidently, immigration is a continuos process, and over time the probability of suitable species of fish entering the Suez Canal and colonizing the new region increases. Time ... plays an essential role in the biological processes of adaptation of the species to the modified conditions of life. More resistant species, endowed with greater plasticity of genetic characters, can form local "races" within a few generations by natural selection in the new environment. But first they need a firm foothold on the other side of the Canal, geographically close to the parental stock and in places where conditions are not drastically different from their normal habitat. Many of the species that successfully colonized the eastern Mediterranean are also dominant species on the trawling grounds of the Gulf of Suez.
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The Second World War saw Germany and Italy both try and penetrate Egypt and take control of the Suez Canal, although Egypt had not declared war. If they could have taken the Suez Canal, the time for reinforcement to reach Britain from the Far East would have been much greater. Although the Canal was mined by German aircraft at various points in the war, each time the Canal was swiftly cleared and brought back into use. Once the war in the Mediterranean and North Africa ended, the Canal finally came into its own allowing a much faster rate of transport to the Far East.
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A state of the art facility has emerged at Port Said East as a transshipment centre for the Eastern Mediterranean at the Northern entrance to the Suez Canal. Operational since October 2004 and now the total number of quay cranes reached 12 Super Post Panamax Cranes. Phase one completed and detailed planning is now underway for the terminal extension which will double the terminal size by 2009.
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