Diving the Red Sea

The visibility and weather slowly improved throughout the week so by the end the visibility was consistently pretty good and the waves were way down. We saw Lionfish on almost every dive and on one night dive we couldn't get rid of them. They seemed to get attracted by our lights so when we're trying to look at or take a picture of something else a Lionfish or two would swim by to see what we're looking at, probably to see if it was tasty.

Melanie complained that we didn't see the bright colorful soft corals that are always shown in books and dive magazines when they show pictures of diving in the Red Sea. We saw the red soft coral only a couple times but there was only one dive site that had a lot of it.

Although there were Zodiacs to bring us to dive sites, we rarely used them. The dive sites all had mooring lines already in place that were right at the dive site so most of the time we just did a giant stride off the back of the boat. The few times we did use the Zodiacs were at sites with some current or when the boat couldn't get close enough to the site. In those cases we rolled off the back and were quickly picked up by the crew after the dive.

My photography dramatically improved on this dive with some tips from Foad. He shoots with a similar Canon point and shoot camera to mine and encouraged me to ditch the big strobe and just use the built-in flash and the Canon case's diffuser and just focus on macro photography. There aren't too many big fish in the Red Sea anyway. That worked well since the fish seemed to be much less scared off by the small housed camera then by the camera with big strobe. The smaller camera also allowed me to get closer to the subject and even be able to get more into crevices to get a shot of some tiny little critter.

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Scorpion Fish. Viewed: 81 times. More: Dive 217	Huge Spanish Dancer. Viewed: 84 times. More: Dive 218	Huge Anemone with Clownfish. Viewed: 77 times. More: Dive 219
A very camera shy Napoleon Wrasse. Viewed: 76 times. More: Dive 219	Blue Spotted Stingray pouting. Viewed: 78 times. More: Dive 221	There were three or four of these Anemone Partner Shrimp at the cleaning station. Viewed: 75 times. More: Dive 221
I love this shot of a Crinoid partially open at night. Viewed: 65 times. More: Dive 222	Swimming through the canyons. Viewed: 70 times. More: Dive 223	Lionfish. Viewed: 71 times. More: Dive 223
Melanie loved the pearl-like thingies. Viewed: 69 times. More: Dive 223	More soft corals with Foad our divemaster. Viewed: 59 times. More: Dive 224	Another Lionfish hiding from divers. Viewed: 69 times. More: Dive 224
Octopus eyeball. Viewed: 78 times. More: Dive 225	Another large Napoleon Wrasse. Viewed: 72 times. More: Dive 226	School of Silversides. Viewed: 58 times. More: Dive 226
One of the huge Remora attached to the Turtle. Viewed: 76 times. More: Dive 227	Two tiny Pipefish. Viewed: 62 times. More: Dive 229	I guess this would be a Green-eyed Dancing Shrimp. Viewed: 78 times. More: Dive 229
Melanie being attacked by a really pissed off Clownfish. Viewed: 167 times. More: Dive 230	One of the rare shots of me under water. Viewed: 145 times. More: Dive 230

Video Available:

This text will be replaced	Short clip of four dolphins at the beginning of a dive. If you look carefully near the end of the clip the dolphins passed within a few feet of two other divers who said they never saw them. (27 seconds) Viewed: 1,263 times.
This text will be replaced	Video clip of me playing with a Napoleon Wrasse. I was just rubbing my fingers together which seemed to get his interest. He wasn't really buying it but kept looking back to check. In the end some loud noise startled him and he swam away. (1 minute 17 seconds) Viewed: 1,244 times.

Mystery Critters

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Any idea what this is? Viewed: 75 times. More: Dive 218	Any idea what this is? Viewed: 73 times. More: Dive 220	I'm told these are Pulsing Xenia. They were alternating opening and feeding. Viewed: 60 times. More: Dive 221
Any idea what makes these pyramids? Viewed: 71 times. More: Dive 222	An unidentified tiny little Crab. Viewed: 52 times. More: Dive 227	What kind of jellyfish is this? Viewed: 88 times. More: Dive 227
I thought this was an Eel but it's really a Snake Blenny. Viewed: 72 times. More: Dive 227	There is that silvery ball again next to a tiny clam. Viewed: 105 times. More: Dive 230

Comments From People Like You! Diving the Red Sea : Egypt 2007	add a comment
Dave 27-May-2008 00:55
"Whatever these things were alternated opening and feeding." That looks like a Pulsing Xenia to me, Xenia umbellata. They're beautiful but grow like weeds in a reef tank. As for the first two my guesses are some sort of nudibranch and a colonial jellyfish, respectively.
Bart Hazes 13-Apr-2008 15:41
The eel-like fish is a snake blenny (Xiphasia setifer), can get up to 60cm long and is normally nocturnal hiding most of the time during the day.
Jason 06-May-2007 07:17
The one that you think is an eel, is actually a fish. I do not have my id book to give you the proper name.
Matt Zimmerman 19-Apr-2007 02:55
That silvery bubble is a single celled algae.  They occur widely (HI too) and are supposed to be one of the largest single celled organisms around.
carmen 04-Mar-2007 11:40
Greg - Looking through my Red Sea dive guide, those pyramids might be made by a crab called a "tibia". It makes these perfect spirals first and then somehow they come to look like pyramids. You may can find something online about them.

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