Red Sea Wildlife Report

[Crowley]

hmmm what have I seen this week?

Last manta I saw was the one I posted previously, although a few more have been seen by other guides in the last week at Ras Umm Sid (again) and Amphoras - which I don't actually like very much, so I rarely go there unless people request it... might have to try again in the next few days!

My friend saw a scalloped hammerhead at Jackfish Alley three days ago - I was on the same boat but teaching Adventure Dives and I made a different dive plan to the main group so I was sadly 30 metres too far away and also facing in the wrong direction! Oops!

Regarding Hammerheads - almost nobody so far has been out to investigate the backside of Jackson reef, which has been almost a sure thing for hammerheads since forever but in the last few years sightings have dropped off dramatically. Some of the guides recall seeing schools of 40 or more and last year only a handful were seen together. With the drop in tourism things have actually improved here in sharm in terms of sightings, but I think a lot of people aren't bothering to look because the last few years have been disappointing.

Did Shark and Yolanda a few days ago and it was stunning - waiting for somebody to send me the photo of me and the trevallies schooling around me at Anemone City and the huge cloud of snappers on the front of shark reef. I don't usually post photos on here but if they are any good, it is for sure worth seeing. I cold have just hovered there for the whole 60 minutes buuut everybody wants to see the underwater toilets so we had to move on.

As for other big wildlife - nothing major to report from my place, at least. In other wildlife news, I have a adopted a small cat that wandered into our dive centre a few weeks ago. She was tooo cute to resist. She is currently wrestling with her own tail.

Anybody else seen anything good here recently?

C.

 

[buleetu]

i had a chance to do jackson in september 08 and got to see a hammerhead,,,not very close im afraid but i did get to see one,,we waited at 30 metres for 12 minutes and right at 11 minutes 50 seconds a hammer head swam by just below us,,,it was really strange to sit in the blue like that just waiting to see if anything would come along,,i was really nervous because i had never seen a shark and thought it might come along and bite me haha as soon as i seen it all the nerves went away and i felt really lucky to see it,, ive been back to jackson twice since but the waves were always bad so we never got a chance to look again fingers crossed for the next time

 

[divebunnie]

Hey Crowley.. good to meet you this morning on the jetty and put a face to the name...

One of our guides Eloise saw two hammerheads on the back of Jackson a couple of days ago! Woo Hoo... along with a massive eagle ray and two sail fish!! Not bad eh... last time she tried jumping the back of Jackson a couple of weeks ago, they saw a whale shark! Last year it was disappointing for me too... whilst I saw other sharks, I didn't see a single hammerhead. Although I have to point out here, that my summer ended in July last year when I broke my foot and was out of the water till October

Anyway, off to Ras Mohammed tomorrow. Soooo looking forward to it, even if we don't see anything big, I just love Shark n Yolande at this time of year

 

[buleetu]

dive bunnie arent sail fish also called marlin,,or at least look like marlin with a big sword nose?? i watched a documentary on bbc and the guy was sitting at 50 metres or so waiting for hammer heads in the southern red sea and a sail fish swam by on its own completly alone nothing for miles but blue water,,i beleive there very rare so ur friend was very lucky indeed!!

 

[Crowley]

...And guess what I saw today - a Sailfish - at Pinky Wall, of all places! Very cool - and not especially common in these waters, so it trumps the Hammerhead that one of our other guides saw at Near Garden today Sailfish are sort of technically Marlin but not - there are several different genera of the family of fish comprising a number of species that are known as marlin and spearfish. This page on Wikipedia provides more detailed classification

Another guide also had a hammerhead outside Jackson the same day as Divebunnie but only one, with a white tip reef shark later in the dive...

Was also nice to see you too Divebunnie - good luck with the fish hunting! I was at Shark and Yolanda today - the vis was poop but the big schools were there, and no less than 6 Napoleon wrasse - all juvenile/intermediate but was great to see

C.

 

[Red Sea Leonfish]

Thanks for keepin us all updated Crowley. All the posts about Sharm having some of the best diving for several years combined with the fact that the resorts are reportedly very quiet have finally prompted me to book to fly out next month to test dive my new warm water BCD.

The dive centre I am likely to dive wth normally does a good range of RasMo and Tiran day boats and my hotel overlooks Temple for some shore-based snorkelling so I hope I might see a good range of the local wildlife whilst I'm out there! I'll certainly be keeping an eye on this thread over the next few weeks so I know which sites to aim for!

 

[Crowley]

Our guides saw a hammerhead in Ras Nasrani today and a small white-tip reef shark.

Shark and Yolanda is stunning at the moment with the big schools of fish - and - the barracuda have come back and are frequently sighted, which didn't happen last year there are some big dogtooth tuna hanging around and Jackfish Alley although I did see bigger last year. Off to Ras Mohamed again tomorrow with an easy private guide which is basically like me getting paid to go diving! See - there is some compensation for the crappy wages!

I heard there's an ornate ghost pipefish been seen recently - I haven't visited that site yet but I know *Exactly* where to find it, and no, I'm not saying where that is!

Cheers

C.

 

[divebunnie]

Haha! I heard about the ghost pipe fish too

Well you will be glad to hear that the puffer fish are now shoaling... soooo cute! We saw a bundle of them on Shark and Yolande the other day, so that was very cool. We also saw the biggest tuna I have ever seen on Jack Fish Alley too... the size of a large bloke!! Followed by another biggie... a huge green turtle (only ten minutes later on the same dive).

But the sighting for me this week has to be my dive yesterday on Fiddle Garden.. teaching open water (dive no. 3!) and I spotted a white tipped reef shark below us (at about 30m)... then just as it disappeared behind us, we saw a huge manta ray flying alongside us in the shallows (in the distance a bit, but close enough to get a good look)... what an awesome dive!

Just loving all this sharky stuff that we are seeing this year... very cool indeed.

I too have seen the shoal of barracuda which I hadn't seen for a couple of years, so that is another very good sign indeed.

 

[Crowley]

A white-tip at fiddle? That's as rare as a comb in a bald man's apartment.... Cool!

Any idea where the snappers at Shark have gone on holiday? Three times in the last week and the big school wasn't there....

 

[divebunnie]

I know, the white tip was a fantastic treat... we were there yesterday as well... saw a turtle and then a couple of mantas just after lunch.. very cool.

I know what you mean about Shark Reef.. dived there today and didn't see them... saw lots of fusiliers tho, and some big meaty tuna (bigger than me... although that is not too hard)! With big meaty teeth too!