Diving with sharks in the Red Sea

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TWO Warrington divers, Peter Coulthard and Peter Holbrook, together with Glyn Hawes from Runcorn, have returned from a diving expedition, which involved studying sharks and other large marine life in the Southern Egyptian Red Sea.
The divers, who all did their qualification dive training with Warrington Sub Aqua Club, flew to Marsa Alam, and then transferred to Port Ghalib to join the diving vessel, Hurricane, which was their home for the next seven nights.
A long overnight sail took them to Daedalus reef, or Abu Kizan, as it is known locally, some 52 miles from Marsa Alam and about half way to Saudi Arabia.
The reef is almost completely submerged, measures only 450 x 100 metres, and is marked by a lighthouse. Currents can be very strong and the reef walls drop initially 30-40 metres and then plummet to depths of over 500 metres.
However, this combination of remoteness, depth and currents attracts an extremely varied fish life including hammerhead sharks and manta rays.
The divers had to wait for some time and air supplies were dwindling when a large hammerhead shark appeared.
Peter Holbrook said: “It came swimming along the reef wall at the same level as ourselves, straight towards us. It kept coming, seeming to grow larger and larger, until it turned aside when only a couple of metres away and was gone as quickly as it had arrived.”
Back aboard the Hurricane, the divers agreed that it appeared Hammerhead sharks were generally found in large schools, with “sentries” cruising in advance to spot potential threats.
It was likely that the single shark encountered had been “checking out” the divers.
A further five dives were carried out and on each occasion large schools were encountered at short range. And more than 20 large sharks were seen at once.
There were also many sightings of Manta Rays.
The vessel sailed on further south to Rocky Island and Zabaragad were more Hammerhead and grey reef sharks were encountered, as well as dolphins.
The divers also investigated the site of a mysterious ship wreck. Originally thought to be a cargo ship, the suspicion is that it was a surveillance vessel, and the mystery intensified when it is noted that the hull appeared to have been damaged by an internal explosion and not by contact with the reef.
It was clear from all of the evidence that this vessel was used as an “intelligence gatherer”, but what was she doing tucked away in a bay in a quiet corner of Egypt near the Sudanese border?
The final leg of the expedition was back north, to Elphinestone, a long, finger shaped reef, extending 300 metres long and one of the most beautiful dive sites in the south of Egypt.
Mr Holbrook said the walls of the reef were spectacular, plunging to more than 100 metres.
“Usually it is an excellent location for sightings of Oceanic whitetip sharks. However, whereas on normal days, the current will be raging, on this visit there was no current whatsoever. This unfortunately meant that the sharks were elsewhere, but it presented the opportunity of two dives to the very ends of both the north and south plateaus, to 50 metres and 37 metres respectively, which is very rarely possible.”


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Experienced journalist for more than 40 years. Managing Director of magazine publishing group with three in-house titles and on-line daily newspaper for Warrington. Experienced writer, photographer, PR consultant and media expert having written for local, regional and national newspapers. Specialties: PR, media, social networking, photographer, networking, advertising, sales, media crisis management. Chair of Warrington Healthwatch Director Warrington Chamber of Commerce Patron Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace. Trustee Warrington Disability Partnership. Former Chairman of Warrington Town FC.

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