South Marsa Alam - bleaching?

[dosc404]

We are currently at Gorgonia beach resort and skipped the diving after we did some snorkeling here and a few dives at Iberotel costa mares some days ago. The bleaching is quite heavy in my opinion. Very few colors and a lot of white, and no soft corals (don’t know if that is normal). In the shallow areas (up to 2m) there is some greenish stuff growing on many of the corals.
We went by speedboat 20 mins to an island with a reef and snorkelled there too, but looked mostly the same. We also snorkelled from Gorgonia jetty to Shams Alam and it was similar, maybe with some a bit healthier spots. There is still a lot of reef fish, turtles and stingrays to see though in all areas we visited.
Take my opinion with a grain of salt and from a snorkeling perspective! It’s my first time there, maybe i just had higher expectations.

 

[TJ95]

Hi, how was the coral at El Quseir? Thanks for letting me know

Honestly not to bad. Yes there has been some bleaching and part of the reef isn't as good as it has been 2 years ago but there is still plenty of color.

 

[kirisetta]

We are currently at Gorgonia beach resort and skipped the diving after we did some snorkeling here and a few dives at Iberotel costa mares some days ago. The bleaching is quite heavy in my opinion. Very few colors and a lot of white, and no soft corals (don’t know if that is normal). In the shallow areas (up to 2m) there is some greenish stuff growing on many of the corals.
We went by speedboat 20 mins to an island with a reef and snorkelled there too, but looked mostly the same. We also snorkelled from Gorgonia jetty to Shams Alam and it was similar, maybe with some a bit healthier spots. There is still a lot of reef fish, turtles and stingrays to see though in all areas we visited.
Take my opinion with a grain of salt and from a snorkeling perspective! It’s my first time there, maybe i just had higher expectations.

Ok good to know! Thank you

 

[kirisetta]

We are currently at Gorgonia beach resort and skipped the diving after we did some snorkeling here and a few dives at Iberotel costa mares some days ago. The bleaching is quite heavy in my opinion. Very few colors and a lot of white, and no soft corals (don’t know if that is normal). In the shallow areas (up to 2m) there is some greenish stuff growing on many of the corals.
We went by speedboat 20 mins to an island with a reef and snorkelled there too, but looked mostly the same. We also snorkelled from Gorgonia jetty to Shams Alam and it was similar, maybe with some a bit healthier spots. There is still a lot of reef fish, turtles and stingrays to see though in all areas we visited.
Take my opinion with a grain of salt and from a snorkeling perspective! It’s my first time there, maybe i just had higher expectations.

Thank you so much! From all accounts the reefs down there used to be absolutely stunning, so no, your expectations were about right I'm glad the marine life is still plentiful though! I hope it all recovers eventually...

 

[Tippytoes12]

Coral is a living creature, so there will always be some old dead broken coral and some new coral. I did a liveaboard in October followed by a week in Wadi Sabarah in November with Emperor. We saw masses of oceanic white tipped sharks, enormous schools of dolphins at Sataya, plus a manta at Fury Shoaol. I have never seen as many turtles in ten plus liveaboards in the area. But, while the coral bleaching from high summer of 2024 is bad, there is news growth on what seemed to be the summer 2023 bleaching. We were also there in early summer 2023 and the coral was outstanding. Soft coral so more robust and does grow back reasonably quickly, but it will be many years before the hard coral grows back IMVHO.

 

[RedSeaDiver2]

We are currently at Gorgonia beach resort and skipped the diving after we did some snorkeling here and a few dives at Iberotel costa mares some days ago. The bleaching is quite heavy in my opinion. Very few colors and a lot of white, and no soft corals (don’t know if that is normal). In the shallow areas (up to 2m) there is some greenish stuff growing on many of the corals.
We went by speedboat 20 mins to an island with a reef and snorkelled there too, but looked mostly the same. We also snorkelled from Gorgonia jetty to Shams Alam and it was similar, maybe with some a bit healthier spots. There is still a lot of reef fish, turtles and stingrays to see though in all areas we visited.
Take my opinion with a grain of salt and from a snorkeling perspective! It’s my first time there, maybe i just had higher expectations.

Soft corals are mainly found in the north - not so much the south. I'm not sure why.

 

[Sascha314]

So we came back. Unfortunately I was only able to snorkel due to medical reasons.

Yes there is clearly lots of visible bleaching. My brother in law dove, and he confirmed the sights at depth ad well. It seems to be a bit better on the south reef. Water temp about 24 degrees according do his rental computer.

However clear cold streams noticed while snorkeling and some frequent visitors said the ocean was colder than the years before and they did not swim in the ocean because of that. I should add it was a bit colder from air temp, and especially very windy, which made it uncomfortable. That could bias this a bit.

I also talked to german divers who came there for the 13th time in a row. They said it clearly got worse snd the reef had been in much better shape a few years ago.

Here are some pics taken from the "surface" while snorkeling. Please note its a crap camera and visibilty was not so good there because of the rough conditons.

 

[Mod63]

Just returend from a trip to the Deep South:

- below Ras Banas the reef are dead. Completely dead. Which is no wonder with water temperatures between 26°C and 28°C. The laggon at St. Johns Cave used to be colorfull, it's now grey.
- Fury Shoals are dying. There are some hard corals left at Shaab Claudia, but the majority is already dead.
- Even Brothers and Daedalus are in a sad state of decay.

 

[Adr1an]

Just returend from a trip to the Deep South:

- below Ras Banas the reef are dead. Completely dead. Which is no wonder with water temperatures between 26°C and 28°C.

Water temperatures are always in the range of 28-29 degrees Celsius in the summer in areas like Ras Mohammed and the hard corals still look gorgeous. If the corals South of Marsa look that bad it must have been something else, not temperatures in the range of 28-29 C

 

[Mod63]

Water temperatures are always in the range of 28-29 degrees Celsius in the summer in areas like Ras Mohammed and the hard corals still look gorgeous. If the corals South of Marsa look that bad it must have been something else, not temperatures in the range of 28-29 C

In the summer, yes, But we are talking 28°C in January. Temperatures have reachew well above 30°C in summer, even Makadi Bay has reached 32°C according to the dive center we used, with water temperatures down to 24°C now in January.