Diving in south red sea egypt

[Sascha314]

In posted this

Post in thread 'South Marsa Alam - bleaching?'

Jan 3, 2025

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...

• Sascha314

• 

End of December even an hour south of Marsa Alam it was about 24 °C water temp. Up to about 25 to 30m, measured at house reef.

 

[Mod63]

I can confirm around 26°C to 28°C water temperature for the southern Red Sea in December 2024/January 2025. South of Ras Banas the reefs are dead. Brothers and Elphinestone are in a sad state, the Fury Shoal reefs are dying. The farther north you get, the "better" the reefs are, but if there isn't a drop in water temeratures this year to give the corrals some time to recover I fear it will get worse even in the north.

 

[scubaozy]

In posted this

Post in thread 'South Marsa Alam - bleaching?'

Jan 3, 2025

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...

• Sascha314

• 

End of December even an hour south of Marsa Alam it was about 24 °C water temp. Up to about 25 to 30m, measured at house reef.

Regarding your original post, you are likely to feel cold at a house reef snorkeling because water at the reeftop/lagoon will be cooled by the wind and mix with the rest of the water where it drops off from 0.5-1m down to the depth.

I can confirm around 26°C to 28°C water temperature for the southern Red Sea in December 2024/January 2025. South of Ras Banas the reefs are dead. Brothers and Elphinestone are in a sad state, the Fury Shoal reefs are dying. The farther north you get, the "better" the reefs are, but if there isn't a drop in water temeratures this year to give the corrals some time to recover I fear it will get worse even in the north.

Did you look at the report, you are a bit generalizing when announcing entire south of ras banas as dead. In this research has Lahmi as the most south point which is around 35km north of ras banas there is quite bleached area but not totally dead.
2024 is suppose to be the warmest year ever globally so I guess it makes sense that the water temps are also higher.

Below the report from 2023 left most is Hurghada (North) right most is Lahmi (South)

 

[Sascha314]

Regarding your original post, you are likely to feel cold at a house reef snorkeling because water at the reeftop/lagoon will be cooled by the wind and mix with the rest of the water where it drops off from 0.5-1m down to the depth.

Just to make sure: There have been clear temperatur variations while snorkeling. There were visual effects and one could really feel cold inside this area, and you could see underwater drom the visual effects, that it was not limited to 2m depth.
However very local at the house reef and some like 2m in diameter.

For my temperature reading I got that from a felloq divers computer, so thats not from snorkeling.
The hotel as well put 24 °C as ocean temp on their temperature board.

 

[Mod63]

Did you look at the report, you are a bit generalizing when announcing entire south of ras banas as dead.

I'm basing this on personal observation. Elba Reef, St. John's, Rocky and Zabargad. Dead. The only color I saw on the coral was the green of the algae overgrowing them.

 

[d^2b]

Very sad indeed. Rocky and Zabargad were the highlights of our 2023 southern red sea itinerary. At the time if felt like "Wow, this is like BDE, but with only our boat diving here".

 

[scubaozy]

I'm basing this on personal observation. Elba Reef, St. John's, Rocky and Zabargad. Dead. The only color I saw on the coral was the green of the algae overgrowing them.

I thought I demonstrated how personal observations can be wrong. Literally everyone around me agreed with me that 2024 November was cooler than the previous year but the stats say something else.