Shark File
Encounters
in the
Red Sea
Following rare attacks in the southern Red Sea this
summer, Shark Trust patron Simon Rogerson explains
why it is so important to respect each and every
encounter with the oceanic white tip shark
Listen to the banter on any Red Sea dive boat – you can bet a fair whales, and on the outer banks of the Bahamas, but longline fisheries
amount of it will be about sharks. A good shark encounter is a special have massively reduced their presence in the Indo-Pacific. Just 20
memory, often the highlight of someone’s holiday, and the presence years ago, they were the most populous large animal species on the
of certain sharks can be a sign of a reef’s health and productivity. planet, and now they are believed to be endangered. Their inquisitive
nature has made them especially susceptible to longline fisheries, and
Most of Egypt’s sharks are naturally shy of divers, but the oceanic their fins are prized by the Asian shark fin market.
white-tip, Carcharhinus longimanus, is an exception. These sharks
wander the deserts of the open seas, where food is scarce and every For the most part, Red Sea encounters with Longimanus have been
potential prey item must be keenly investigated. Where a grey reef or thrilling rather than threatening. I have spent long afternoons diving
scalloped hammerhead shark would keep its distance after perhaps under liveaboards, watching the sharks as they patrolled between the
one curious pass of a diver, the oceanic will come in again and again, reef and the boats. Every now and then, one would approach me head
closer and closer. on, then veer gracefully away when I exhaled. It has been observed
that the sharks tend to become increasingly aggressive the longer
Boldness – some would say aggression – is hard-wired into the they investigate divers. The passes get closer, and the diver may even
oceanic’s behaviour. The trait has led to some memorable encounters be bumped. This is the time to get out of the water, and it’s always
at reefs such as Elphinstone, the Brother Islands and St Johns, where worth remembering that a shark’s thoughts turn to feeding as the sun
the recent fatal attack took place. At the time of writing it was too starts to set.
early to determine what exactly had prompted the attack, but it seems
certain that the shark had been illegally fed. In the precious moments I have spent observing sharks, I have
learned an important lesson… one that you will not read in any of the
All the predatory shark species become less predictable and more textbooks. Even within the same species, no two sharks show exactly
dangerous when their senses are stimulated by the presence of food. the same behaviour. They can be shy, curious, fearful, confident, even
The scent of fish in the water ramps up their behaviour, so if the shark gentle. As much as you try to predict a shark’s behaviour by its species,
in question is already bold, it can become actively aggressive towards there will always be that unpredictable factor – its own personality.
humans, which it may see as competitors. Accordingly, every shark encounter should be tempered with respect.
The Red Sea is one of the last places you can dive with oceanic white- Simon Rogerson is the editor of UK magazine DIVE
tips. They are sometimes seen off Hawaii, where they follow pilot (www.divemagazine.co.uk)
12
www.cdws.travel
Issue 1 June 2009
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