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.