July 2008 Archives

It seemed like such a good idea at the time. After all this wasn't a new experience for us. A couple of years ago Mohamed Hamid, Steve Kehoe and I had pitted ourselves against a silky shark and lived to tell the tale, so how much harder could it be with an oceanic white-tip? Ok it's true, back then we'd had the added benefit of an anchor line to strategically position ourselves behind when the silky had come a little bit too close for comfort (a 2.5" diameter rope provides plenty of psychological protection against a 2.5m shark). This time we would just be depending on our cameras and a whole lot of misplaced bravado.

Gary Ball, Dive Centre Manger, reports...

Our Dugong Survey has taken on a life of its own with guests asking to dive the same site time and time again to collect more and more information! We have had 15 individual sightings this month but one question that always comes up is how to tell if they are male or female? A difficult question to answer until during one dive a group were given dramatic evidence that this was a male...those who saw it know what I mean! One of our guides, Chris Gooda, has collected so much information that he has made a Dugong presentation slide show and talk which he has practised on us and it really is fascinating.

It turned out to be a holiday of 'firsts' for Simon Berry with his first trip to Sharm and the first guest to complete the BSAC Ocean Diver course. Simon's partner, Amelia Charles is a BSAC instructor and gave Emperor BSAC Instructor, Steve Kehoe, some valuable assistance. Steve was very impressed with Simon's enthusiasm during the course, "Every time we did a sheltered lesson or open water session Simon improved and his confidence grew enormously."

Only two days ago, Paul Palmer was diving from Marsa Alam when he took this great photo of a turtle.  Here's what Paul had to say...

"Dive Site: Marsa Shoni Kebeir. Afternoon Dive with Mo guiding. My Buddy, and Spotter, was Maike Freund from Germany and the photo was taken towards the end of the dive at about 9m. It was a fantastic dive even without the Turtle. Lion Fish, Scorpion Fish, Crocodile Fish and all of the normal 'usual suspects'."