Red Sea Life
Blue Cheek Lemon Butterfl y Fish All photos: Hans Sjoeholm
ONE AND ONLY
As a body of ocean, the Red Sea is unique with fascinating topography and a huge population of endemic
underwater creatures. Save Our Seas cameraman and marine biologist Owen Bruce looks at why so many of
its resident species are found nowhere else on the planet.
It could be claimed that the underwater life of the Red Sea is more environment has occurred, formed over the millennia for the evolution
vivid and colourful than anywhere else on the planet. One, particularly of unique endemic species. Thanks to this evolutionary process, not only
imaginative, explanation for this is when the angels were painting the is the marine life of the Red Sea so vibrant, but approximately 20 percent
world, they took a little ‘siesta’ in this part of the world and accidentally of the species present are completely unique. Many of these species are
spilled all the leftover paints in the Red Sea. Another, more conventional, commonly found in Egyptian waters and are regularly encountered by
explanation is the process of evolution. divers and snorkellers.
The main reason why an unusually high number of species have evolved The Red Sea is home to 300 species of corals, 10 per cent of which are
in the Red Sea unfound anywhere else on Earth, is the Red Sea’s near endemic. The common brain coral (Erythrastrea fl abelleta) found on all
enclosed shape. Known as ‘species endemism’, only the remote Hawaiian Red Sea reefs and characterized by a winding pattern of cream coloured
Islands archipelago has a greater number of endemic species than the polyps found on reef slopes down to 20m is a classic example of a Red
Red Sea. As continental plates drifted apart, species isolated in certain Sea endemic species.
areas, such as animals on a landmass surrounded by water, or as in the
case of the Red Sea, a sea surrounded by land, evolved to suit the specifi c
The most noticeable and colourful of all Red Sea endemics, are the fi sh.
needs of the surrounding environment. As evolution of the trapped
The Red Sea bannerfi sh (Heniochus intermedius) is one of the endemic fi sh
species progressed, unique species formed in each area, all of which are
species of the Red Sea most easily recognized by divers and snorkellers in
perfectly suited to the specifi c ecological niches of their environment.
Egypt. They occur in pairs or small groups on the reef and feed on small
invertebrates and zooplankton.
Five million years ago the Red Sea was connected to the Mediterranean
by a narrow channel. This channel was eventually closed as the continents
Butterfl yfi sh fl ourish in all tropical seas, with 12 species listed in the Red
gradually rose leaving the Red Sea an enclosed basin, isolating the
Sea. Half of these species are endemic. Being small and territorial, when
species in the Red Sea from their relatives elsewhere. Later, the southern
isolated by the moving continents, they quickly evolved as a diff erent
Red Sea opened into the Indian Ocean, now known as the Strait of Perim
species to their cousins outside the Red Sea. Butterfl yfi sh range in size but
or Bab el Mandeb. Today, this channel is the narrowest and shallowest
are generally small, from 10 – 20cm, they occur normally in pairs or small
section of the Red Sea and still acts as a physical barrier to the movement
groups and inhabit only healthy reef systems, where they feed on tiny
of many reef species in and out of the Red Sea. As a result, the perfect
coral polyps, algae and zooplankton and even jellyfi sh.
42 www.cdws.travel
Issue 5 March - April ‘10
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