i think theres a rule about the guide because of the deaths there, if u go on youtube u can find a video of a russian guy that died there,scary stuff, i would say that perhaps the goverenment made the rule to stop people going deeper than they should to keep the deaths down,bad for tourisim i suspect, if you go to wiki and search the blue hole dahab u will see that some people want to go threw the arch and underestimate its distance and run into trouble
At best, it is only partially true.
If you look over the years, I think you'll be surprised to discover that the number of deaths in Egypt much higher during these years that guided dives are mandatory.
However, one can play with statistics and get whatever result you want- in the last years the number of divers has also increased, so overall perhaps it is the same death per number of dives with or without guided dives enforced.
Also, there has been some incidents in which a whole group of divers has disappeared during a guided dive (for example in Elphinstone last year) so it biases the statistics, and also quite a lot of latest deaths were actually technical divers, presumably very experienced.
Another thing, the "Blue Hole" suffers from bad public relationship about its death toll, and in the past many divers who died in nearby sites (like "The Canyon")- their deaths were attributed to the "Blue Hole" because it made better headlines in newspapers or just the reporter's ignorance (as is reflected in most diving accidents reported with lots of wrong information...)
I believe that the "mandatory guided dives only" is mainly from economic reasons- not a bad reason in general- but it has nothing to do with accidents or marine conservation, although both are high in the list why it is good to have mandatory guided dives.
Most divers who come for a few day's vacation would prefer to use a local guide who'd take them to the "best sites", will show them "the best fish", will know the local currents etc etc. These type of divers will always prefer to have a guide whether it is mandatory or not, because it will allow them to get the best from their short vacation.
However, there are lots and lots of divers from all over the world who come quite frequently and already know where and how to div- sometimes even better than local guides, or just prefer from their own reasons to dive by themselves and it is not allowed presently.
About "The Russian guy video" (most probably you are referring to Yuri Lipski's video), he was an experienced dive guide. It was not the only (and unfortunately not the last- a year ago Polish/Israeli instructor/guide working for Planet Divers Robert Wickowski died in the Blue Hole) death case of experienced divers (in many cases dive instructors!) well acquainted with the site, who knew how to dive more than most of us- and died there. For many of these cases, the reason why is still mystery...
