Red Sea Wildlife Report

[Interceptor121]

Interesting news about the tiger shark. When I was in South Africa I spoke to some guys that have been running baited dives since ten years and they told me the tigers are always somewhere they just do not turn up without a reason. People that have tagged them have seen that they stay away from divers very carefully.
I wonder why a tiger shark would get close to a reef, either desperation for food or really there are less divers in RasMo
How many boats do you find on average on Shark and Yolanda these days??

 

[Crowley]

One good reason for tigers to visit the reefs would be the Turtles - apparently there are one or two with limbs missing and I've seen one at Jackson that looks like something tried to take a chunk out of its shell.

There have been a lot less divers in Ras Mohamed over the last few months; in the last few weeks it has certainly picked up and there were 15 boats there two days ago, but fortunately not all in the water at the same time. only 4 boats on Thistlegorm today which made it very awesome indeed.

The wildlife is really better this year than last year - not necessarily in terms of the big stuff but in the sheer volume of really cool stuff. Thistlegorm today (was great!) and Ras Mohamed tomorrow - if I see anything I shall let you know!

C.

 

[TSandM]

I'm watching this thread with gratitude, because I'm going to be there in less than a month! I would give my eyeteeth to see sailfish in the water . . .

 

[Interceptor121]

Crowley I will be reading with interest your posts.
The thing with Sharm and most of Egypt (in my view) is that the macro life is not exceptional and the pelagics are also a bit hit and miss so any fish bigger than a diver that becomes a regular feature is great news.
Definitely sailfish or merlin cruising by is a feature though the encouter can be really brief before they shoot off!

 

[divebunnie]

Talking of sail fish... I saw four the other day gliding past me on Jack Fish Alley in Ras Mohammed!! It was an awesome sight. They slightly threw me because their "sails" the very large and long dorsal fin that gives them their name, were down. But despite that, they were unmistakeable with their pointy noses, wide shiny silver body, and big forked tail... sail fish... and four of them. As Crowley said, they really are not a common sight here, so a definite bonus whenever they do turn up. In six years' of guiding the area, I have only ever seen three before, one off the beach at Naama Bay and two on Ras Katy, both of those sightings were only last year too.

 

[Longimanus1975]

I had exactly the same experience as you at the same time, what boat were you on?

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

 

[Longimanus1975]

Keep up the comments Crowley/Divebunnie, its great to read all the sightings. Anyone go down south, Daedalus, St Johns etc who could give sightings?

 

[Mooseman1007]

Hey guys
Just back from a week long liveaboard Trip on VIPONE doing the Northern Reefs/Wrecks and thought I would report some sightings
6 turtles over the week (mostly at Tiran but 1 on Jackfish and 1 on Shark
5 White tips, and 1 oceanic black tip (all seen by the other members of the group and not by me ! :-( )
and the highlight of the week was a full grown Thresher cruising along the plateau on Thomas Reef ! Definately made my week !
Mooseman

 

[Crowley]

last post - August 30th - wow! Can't believe anybody hasn't seen anything since then!

I think the big news story for me over the last few months have been the regular hammerhead sightings at Jackson outside. Last year was a dismal year, maybe one or two here and there, but this year they are being sighted on almost every dive that we (as in guides from my centre) have conducted there, Moreover sightings of only a single shark are actually in the minority. Most dives are seeing more than two and a couple of weeks ago, as many as 10! Sure, this is insignificant compared to the schools of 40 or more that could be seen here ten years ago, but it's pretty awesome compared to the last few years.

I've been out of the water for office-based reasons (IT support, mostly) over the last few weeks (as well as having a cold prior to that) but on my last excursions in Tiran with a group of divers who rented a private boat we had a very productive week with lots o cool sightings - hammerheads, eagle rays, and a random white tip reef shark, although a good size for the species (possibly up to 1.5m) and a few of the guides have seen multiple grey reef sharks on limited occasions,

As we head rapidly into the winter months, the fish populations are inevitably declining; the snappers at Shark are still present in ever dwindling numbers, and we've been permanently a degree less warm underwater than last year - which kinda confirms samaka's cyclical theory about the Red Sea in that peak water temperatures have declined for the last two consecutive years so we can probably look forward to a pretty cold winter underwater.

Still lovely as always, however, even without the bigger stuff and although we are in the middle of High Season here in Sharm, the tourist population is Sharm is very significantly lower that his has been over the previous years and that means a lot less divers at some of the reefs.

I know a few SB-ers are heading this way in the next few months so I hope you enjoy it!

Cheers

C.

 

[Vassilis Vlachopoulos]

... so we can probably look forward to a pretty cold winter underwater

You've been far too long in the Red Sea, Crowley !!! I can't imagine a single dictionnary in the entire world that would define 22 celcius as "cold"