Sea Queen

Scuba Diving in Sharm el Sheikh, Red Sea, Egypt.

The diving in Sharm-el-Sheikh is some of the best in the world. The corals and the fish life astound every visitor to the area. The corals come to within 1 meter from the surface and then continue down into the depths. The fish life is all over the reef, allowing visitors the opportunity to view them from the surface. Most of the fish life is the smaller reef dwellers as opposed to the pelagic life, but if you look into the blue the big stuff is there.

The diving is from the Straits of Tiran in the North to Ras Mohamed in the South. With regular trips round into the Gulf of Suez to visit the wrecks of Dunraven, Thistlegorm and the area of Abu Nuas

All the diving in the area is by boats which are about 20m. These are designed for divers, with a large dive deck and easy access in to the water and then a ladder out. There is a sun deck upstairs which has a shaded area and a area where you can soak up the rays (careful you don’t get burnt!!).
The boats all have at least 1 toilet, usually more and a saloon area with tables and comfortable seats. This is where the crew serve lunch, which is usually a very good buffet style lunch.

All the diving takes place under the rules of the Ras Mohamed National Park. These rules are aimed at protecting the marine environment and include:

• No fish feeding
• No Coral or Shell collecting
• No fishing within 150m of reef (It might be more than 150m)
• No Spear fishing
• No throwing food or waste into the water

A few other ‘rules’ that are for the safety of the divers are:-

• Always do a pre-dive check with your buddy
• Limit your depth to your level of training or experience. Generally there is a 30m limit
• Avoid touching the reef, it might harm you as well as you harming it.
• Do a safety stop of 3 minutes at 5m before surfacing. Do this close to the reef or on the mooring line.
• Do a buoyancy check while on the safety stop. If at the end of the dive at 5m you have air in the BC, when try taking a kilo of lead off the belt.
• Ascend next to the reef or along the mooring line. Do not ascend in the blue or open water as there are a lot of boats in the area.
• Swim back to the boat on the surface, and not a couple of meters under. If you are underwater the skippers can not see you, and you will loose any fight with a boats propeller!
• Log yourself back onto the boat with the DiveMaster. There is often a log sheet to do this.