Safaga-Brothers-Elphinstone vs Deep South

[JakeyH]

Hi all,

I have ended up shooting myself in the foot by booking flights for a liveboard trip to Egypt before the Liveboard I am due to sail on has confirmed the trip for a Brothers-Daedalus-Elphinstone trip in June (silly me). Looking at other options with the same dates and found 3 main routes, Safaga-Brothers-Elphinstone, Deep south (presumably st John's and the like) and Rocky-Zabargad-St John's. In your experience what would be the better option here for shark action? Obviously I'll wait out the current BDE option for a few more weeks in case they get some more bookings and the trip is confirmed but if not, which would people reccommend? Brothers and Elphinstone are well known for shark encounters but some of the areas in the deep south are advertised as often hosting schooling Hammerheads and the occasional Tiger Shark, and I imagine that the deep south routes might stop off at Elphinstone on their way back up to Marsa Alam. Any input would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Christian]

Brothers and Deadalus best. Elphinstone also better if sharks is what you want to see.
Schooling hammerheads is a rare sight in Egypt (which is the Northern Red Sea). But smaller groups common in summer, biggest groups I have actually seen on Elphinstone north, 15-20 sharks. Normally 4-7 sharks. For schools of 40-50 sharks or more you need to go much further south, to the central Red Sea—the Sudan in spring.

 

[mcohen1021]

June 9-16 2018, Brothers itinerary,

we saw numerous oceanic white tips & silkies , a small school of hammers, 1 thresher, 1 manta and 1 white tip reef shark.

 

[Sunn]

I think that if you really want to see schools of sharks, you'll be disapointed... that was the Red Sea 70 years ago, when even the dive crew of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso were sometimes afraid to dive because of sharks (try to find the documentary film "world of silence", 1956), but nowadays...

As Christian says, the best option for sharks should be BDE, they are not numerous in the deep south (of Egypt), i.e. St John's reef and surroundings of Berenice.

 

[Dutch Mermaid]

Can only confirm BDE as the right route and June is a decent month for it as well.
Longimanus, Hammerhead, Silky if lucky.... They're all there but maybe not in massive schools.

Took this shot in September last year at Little Brothers! But honestly, that's lucky.

 

[JakeyH]

I think that if you really want to see schools of sharks, you'll be disapointed... that was the Red Sea 70 years ago, when even the dive crew of Jacques Cousteau's Calypso were sometimes afraid to dive because of sharks (try to find the documentary film "world of silence", 1956), but nowadays...

As Christian says, the best option for sharks should be BDE, they are not numerous in the deep south (of Egypt), i.e. St John's reef and surroundings of Berenice.

I suppose I should've said groups instead of schools . If B-D-E ends up unavailable would you reccommend Safaga-Brothers-Elphinstone over Rocky-Zabargad-St John's-Elphinstone in this case simply because the Brothers islands are a more likely spot than the deep south?

 

[bshort4]

I was on a liveaboard this past September on the St. John route and frankly I found the diving rather boring. Lots of nice hard corals but not much in the way of fish life. I had planned on booking BDE but Brothers was closed at the time of my booking so went with St. Johns. We did stop at Elphinstone on our way back and that made the dive trip somewhat worth it---five or six Whitetips swimming with us with lots of close encounters--terrific. Our guides told us that since Brothers had been reopened that shark sightings were way down and on more than one trip there they had seen none at all--but hopefully sightings have gotten better. If I had to choose one of those itineraries I would choose Safaga-Brothers-Elphinstone and somewhat increase your chances of shark encounters.

 

[bvbellomo]

Where are all the sharks? Have they been hunted directly? Or are people overfishing their prey?

 

[Dan]

Where are all the sharks? Have they been hunted directly? Or are people overfishing their prey?

At least there were a couple of Oceanic Whitetip still in Elphinstone 6 weeks ago.

 

[Sunn]

Where are all the sharks? Have they been hunted directly? Or are people overfishing their prey?

I hope this is happening less now with the war, but fisher from Yemen were taking 100+ per day... to sell the fins, mainly. Another reason is overfishing (go to Starfish restaurant in Hurghada, where do you think this is coming from ?).

Times are changing, not for better, and you, divers who have seen schools of sharks, be aware that this won't happen again very often...