Red Sea Wildlife Report

[Crowley]

I found the snappers!

I did Shark and Yolanda second dive today (12:30) after a first dive at Jackfish Alley; the current was running backwards (from baby Yolanda to Shark, if you're familiar with dive site), ran to slack and then switched so I jumped at Baby and finished my dive, ironically, given my blog post about current checks, going the wrong way at Shark! Very mild current though... And hey, I can tell you what the current is doing at the start of a dive but I have no idea what it will do after that! Moses may have been able to part the waters of the Red Sea but I for sure cannot.

I saw maybe 200 (ish) Snappers hanging out over the drop-off near the wreck (the toilets, if you've been here), and then making my safety stop at Shark, I was greeted with a long stream of them moving back over to Shark with the current switch... awesome to watch!

Also I had schools of barracuda at both dive sites, which was really cool, and saw the tuna that DiveBunnie encountered and one of them is indeed, rather large.

Awesome day - and I especially liked the bit where a guide from another centre swam his group straight through my colleague's and was then suddenly attacked by two medium-sized tuna. Revenge!

And I know I shouldn't say this, but I did have a strange hankering for sushi after surfacing at Jackfish Alley

Tiran tomorrow and my guests have requested a jaunt outside Jackson to look for the hammerheads, so I told them to laminate a good book and bring it along because sadly, they are unlikely to see any. Fingers crossed all the same though!

Cheers

C.

 

[divebunnie]

Yay!! I was hoping that would be the case... It looks like we are diving the same areas.. I was in Tiran today as well... and we too were hoping to head around the back of Jackson, but sadly the swell had other ideas Hey Ho.

Let's see what Ras Mo holds out for tomorrow...

 

[gehadoski]

Hi bunny

Is there any website you use to check for weather forecast?

 

[divebunnie]

Yes, I use the following for Sharm local dives:

Windfinder - Wind & weather forecast Sharm El Sheikh

I use the same site, but Nabq area for Tiran and El-Tor for Thistlegorm. It has been proved accurate on many occasions, especially when forecasting bad weather.

The only thing it cannot predict is the swell as there are no transmitter buoys in the Red Sea, so very occasionally it may predict a flat day, but a random swell can come in from another area

Hope that helps

 

[Crowley]

Finally got a chance to go outside Jackson today

Maybe 5 Hammerheads, possibly 6, definitely 3! They were deep and only there for a few seconds, but at the very least - they were there!

Very happy with my day in Tiran!

Cheers

C.

 

[divebunnie]

Yay! Great stuff... we too got to see them a few weeks ago... not as many sightings as normal, but still a huge improvement on last year eh?

 

[Crowley]

yes definitely an improvement on the hammerhead front...

Also I hear reports of a tiger shark sighting in Tiran - very cool.

I saw Five yes, 5!! sailfish at Shark Reef last week divebunnie - awesome! My friend saw a whale shark at near garden and still plenty of snappers hanging about at shark, although there is a distressing amount of new fishing line in the water :-(

There seem to still be manta here, the fish life is awesome... good times for wildlife enthusiasts!

Cheers

C.

 

[divebunnie]

Ah a friend of mine saw a couple of sailfish in Ras Mo the other day... Shark Observatory to be precise.. awesome!

Am loving the news about the tiger shark. I have heard a few rumours about that one but none confirmed. And great news that a black tip has been spotted back on Shark and Yolande too... yay!

Having said all that, a couple of instructor friends of ours were back this week for a trip, and they saw very little on the shark front... goes to show... you just have to be lucky on the day

 

[Crowley]

Ah a friend of mine saw a couple of sailfish in Ras Mo the other day... Shark Observatory to be precise.. awesome!

Yes but I saw 5. FIVE!

Am loving the news about the tiger shark. I have heard a few rumours about that one but none confirmed.

I have not seen it, but I've spoken to people who know somebody who has (ahaha) but I do believe it's true. They are not easily mistaken.

Having said all that, a couple of instructor friends of ours were back this week for a trip, and they saw very little on the shark front... goes to show... you just have to be lucky on the day

Saw the aforementioned hammerheads but nothing since then. A colleague saw a Whale shark at Near garden the other day but other than that, a relatively quiet shark week here also... Lots of turtles this week for some reason, though.

Cheers

C.

 

[divebunnie]

Coool... I have been teaching, mostly off the beach, so not seen any of the big stuff... a nice honeycomb ray the other day though... and I guess that was pretty big.

I did have the pleasure of seeing the tiger shark that was here about five years ago... a couple of times on Shark and Yolande Reefs... and no they are not easily mistaken!!!