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Report on a Classic Destination: Diving the Red Sea by Carl Roessler |
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During the decades between 1973 and 1997 I made dive cruises in the Red Sea nearly every year. From Jordan, Israel and Egypt in the North to the Sudan and Eritrea in the South, I was fortunate enough to experience this amazing sea in its Golden Age. For
most
of
the
years
I
traveled
the
Red
Sea
its
reefs
were
untouched,
sharks
were
plentiful
and
each
reef
seemed
more
bountiful
than
the
last. The Red Sea has distinct seasons for each sector, and it pays to use the Spring and Fall months strategically to find warm, clear water that is superb for photographically. The northern Red Sea includes the coast of the Sinai desert culminating in the promontory (and world-famed dive site) Ras Muhammad., the current-swept reefs of the Tiran Straits and a series of spectacular shipwrecks including the Dunraven, the Aida, the Carnatic and the Thistlegorm. My own favorite sites were further South between The Brothers Islands (site of the Aida) and the offshore reefs of the Sudan. Along that Sudanese coast is one of the great wreck dives anywhere, the Blue Bell (also called The Toyota Wreck because when she overturned Toyota cars and trucks were scattered everywhere)..Another fabulous wreck is the Umbria, right outside Port Sudan. As for reef diving, Jacques Cousteau used sites at Sha’ab Rumi and Sanganeb Reef North of Port Sudan for the filming of his 1962 film The Silent World. Groups who traveled with me marveled at the first filmed shark cage, the parking garage for the mini-sub called the Sea Flea and the remains of the world’s first underwater habitat on a sandy sea floor 164 feet below the surface. |
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Visit Our Red Sea Gallery |
The corals, including huge beds of fire coral, are often obscured by huge schools of orange fairy basslets Anthias squammipinnus ; indeed, this is one of the signature images of diving in the Red Sea. There is an enormous range of colorful fish and invertebrate species for amateur and professional photographers alike—as well as sharks, for those who love them as I do. |
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On
one
cruise,
I
had
sixteen
divers
on
a
big
live-aboard
out
of
Port
Sudan.
The
Captain
had
on
my
exploration
visit
shown
me
a
fabulous
shark-feeding
site.
I
told
him
that
when
I
brought
the
first
group,
we
would
feed
the
sharks
for
two
days,
but
then
the
divers
would
want
to
move
on
to
other
sites. I brought the first group a few months later, and off we cruised to see the sharks. After four full days of sharks four times each day, the Captain came to me with a scornful look on his face and said, “Uh—what was that about them wanting to move on from the sharks?” Whether we were diving with huge morays, massive pink or yellow soft coral colonies, dainty butterflyfish, rays, turtles, or a host of other marine creatures, the Red Sea has long been the most colorful place I have ever seen for photography. |
The Red Sea is not the easiest place to have adventures. It is, to say the least, a place of unstable politics and religion; every once in a while, unexpected things just happen. I have slept in a hotel in Khartoum which Osama bin Laden had used, had fabulous diving when the 1991Gulf War was only 90 days from it’s opening bombardments, suffered a thousand-mile bus ride across the desert after an airline went on strike, was kidnapped and held hostage at gunpoint for two days—and in each case, the underwater photographs from eacht trip were among the best I had ever taken. Dive destinations come and sometimes go, but the great champions retain their special allure. The Red Sea is one of those places to which I will always go at the drop of a hat. It has earned my respect and affection with decades of world-class subjects. Now, if the countries in the Middle East could just become more peaceful… |
The
best
Red
Sea
reefs
are
actually
huge
mountain-tops
rising
from
very
deep
water
right
to
the
surface.
These
are
steep-sided
formations,
gently
brushed
by
currents
and
almost
always
offering
incredibly
clear
water
for
photography.
