Red Sea Wildlife Report

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Crowley

Master Instructor
Scuba Instructor
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I'm a Fish!
Thought I'd resurrect this from last year because it's become rather interesting here in Sharm in the last few weeks.

The water is just starting to warm up and has brought with the the Mantas from the previous post - saw a huge one (well, huge for Sharm), easily over 3m wingspan, at Ras Za'atar and then the very next day from the boat I saw a fin poking out of the water just off Gordon Reef which turned out not to be a dolphin (of which we have seen many recently), but what looked very much like a Tiger shark - this was later confirmed by another two dive centres, one of whom saw it under the water.

There's a juvenile whale shark also been sighted recently (yesterday in the Gardens), maybe 2.5 metres in length or so and probably one of the most spectacular sightings was of a mola-mola (aka sunfish) at Jackson Reef. I haven't seen these two yet... but I'll be looking.

It would also seem the springtime full moon spawning was - er successful! :D

I don't think anybody at my centre has bothered to go looking for the hammerheads yet, and I haven't heard from any other places, although I have been on a small mini-vacation in Dahab (free-flowing Sakara, eh, String!?) and very much looking forward to getting in the water tomorrow.

Cheers

C.
 
Hmmm glorious.. we have been getting regular sightings of the big green turtles at Naama Bay too... fantastic.

I have yet to see the mantas although a few of our guides have... no whale sharks for us yet either, but like you, we have seen plenty of dolphins... loads in fact. Fantastic stuff.

Great to hear that the tiger shark has returned... I have not heard of any sightings of these since my first summer here back in 2005. None of our guys have gone around the back of Jackson as yet either. But will keep you posted :D
 
Last reported tiger shark sighting at my centre in Sharm was 2008 - one at the Brothers I think on Safari 2009 - and since then, nada. Can't speak for any other centres of course.

I haven't heard of any hammerheads at all so far - and for sure people have been looking. I was in Tiran last week, dead flat, dead calm, zero current - so I went to Kormoran instead.

Dolphins at Near Garden today, and somebody found a fuzzy ghost pipefish... which I had to look up because I've never heard of one before.

The turtles are pretty much resident on our house reef... but I haven't seen them recently because unfortunately I have been up and down between Ras Mohamed and Tiran for the last 6 weeks.

Woop - my job sucks! :D

C.
 
I'm going to Dahab on Tuesday, I've heard reports of lots of dolphins and turtles :) I know it's rare to get any big pelagics up there but I'm hopeful.
 
Thnx for the info
 
Yeah Crowley, I can't even imagine a ****ty job like yours....

Thanks for enlightening us on the fuzzy ghost pipefish...

Keep the posts coming, diving through ur posts is all we city goers can hope for at the moment :wink:
 
We didn't see anything big on the dives themselves yesterday but had two pods of dolphins on the way back.. first about seven grampus chilling out on the surface.. then about ten or more bottle nose dolphins riding the wave at our bow.. fantastic end to a lovely day :)
 
It just gets better...

Yesterday at Tower I had a white tip reef shark - pretty big for the species at about 1.5 metres and today at Jackfish Alley I saw a grey reef shark way out near the drop-off from Fisherman's bank. Sadly did not see the black-tip (Limbatus) that has been hanging about there. Also a huge school of barracuda - maybe 50 or so, the emperors were gathering, as were the batfish - just stunning with super viz. Big old turtle and a heeeyuuuge napoleon wrasse all in the same square 50 metres. Awesome!

Topped it all off with a Manta at Ras Umm Sid....

As DiveBunnie says - been seeing lots of dolphins about at the moment - had a pod of about 70 or 80 spinners (not possible to count) surfing the bow and hopping about in the wake of my boat last week.

Folks, for sure this is already better than last year - keep it coming! Tiran tomorrow... searching for the whale shark and the mola mola... cooool!

Very excited,

Crowley
 
Ahhh fantastic Crowley!

Of course the dive I didn't do yesterday (the Alternatives) gave the group a white tip reef shark (yes.. I know, we normally get leopard sharks there!)... we did Shark n Yolande in the afternoon and like Jackfish, the shoals are beginning to gather. The snapper wall is a little cluster and there was a bundle of unicorn fish on the front of Yolande.. hmmm lovely.

I love this time of year... full of promise for a great summer.. woo hoo!
 
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