Post by Dive Bunnie on May 4, 2008 7:10:24 GMT
So I was on Shark and Yolande reefs yesterday enjoying yet another fantastic dive there when I had my dive pretty much ruined by the behaviour of other divers in the water (not the guys I was guiding, I hasten to add).
We saw a turtle, so made our way over towards him to get a bit of a closer look. Every single one of my divers finned gently into the current while we watched the turtle munching a big lump of soft coral, not one of us getting too close and not one of us feeling the need to hold on to anything. Two minutes later we were bombarded with divers from another group landing on and around us, kneeling on the reef, hanging on to bits of coral crowding around the poor turtle attempting to go about his daily business. It was so disappointing.
I will also say that the wreck of the Yolande seems to be taking a battering too, with divers literally climbing over it. The rolls of 'lovely' 80's shower curtain material have been ripped at the ends to reveal the pattern of the fabric, destroying the layer of life that had been growing over it.
I thought the rules of the Red Sea (and most definitely Ras Mohammed) were that you don't touch, don't take, and respect the aquatic life. However it seems that at the moment, there is a large amount of guides and subsequently guests, who are ignoring this, and ultimately the reef is beginning to suffer.
On my safety stop I saw whole areas of fire coral with the tips snapped off, where clumsy divers had given it a clout. This is normally something you only see in the shallows of local reefs where snorklers have clambered over the reef-plate (again not allowed, but ignorance is bliss, I guess).
It is so sad to see this happening to one of the best dive sites in the world, and without getting into underwater stand-offs, what are we to do to stop this going on. We will lose this wonderful site if this carries on. But many of the guides at the moment just don't seem to care.
We saw a turtle, so made our way over towards him to get a bit of a closer look. Every single one of my divers finned gently into the current while we watched the turtle munching a big lump of soft coral, not one of us getting too close and not one of us feeling the need to hold on to anything. Two minutes later we were bombarded with divers from another group landing on and around us, kneeling on the reef, hanging on to bits of coral crowding around the poor turtle attempting to go about his daily business. It was so disappointing.
I will also say that the wreck of the Yolande seems to be taking a battering too, with divers literally climbing over it. The rolls of 'lovely' 80's shower curtain material have been ripped at the ends to reveal the pattern of the fabric, destroying the layer of life that had been growing over it.
I thought the rules of the Red Sea (and most definitely Ras Mohammed) were that you don't touch, don't take, and respect the aquatic life. However it seems that at the moment, there is a large amount of guides and subsequently guests, who are ignoring this, and ultimately the reef is beginning to suffer.
On my safety stop I saw whole areas of fire coral with the tips snapped off, where clumsy divers had given it a clout. This is normally something you only see in the shallows of local reefs where snorklers have clambered over the reef-plate (again not allowed, but ignorance is bliss, I guess).
It is so sad to see this happening to one of the best dive sites in the world, and without getting into underwater stand-offs, what are we to do to stop this going on. We will lose this wonderful site if this carries on. But many of the guides at the moment just don't seem to care.
