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August 18, 2004

Emperor helps Sharm come clean

Sharm El Sheikh held its third successful 'Operation Dive-sites Clean-up' in August.

Emperor Divers, along with other Sharm dive centres, joined in the clean up, organised by the South Sinai Association for Diving & Marine Activities.

Day One saw approximately 50 kg of solid waste removed from underwater, whilst on the second day of clean-up, Shark Reef /Yolanda and Jack Fish Alley, Ras Mohamed, gave up 15 bags of solid waste including fishing lines, plastic sheets, bottles, ropes, shoes and general debris.

The most peculiar item removed was an engine room door!

The diving community, as a whole, is always keen to help preserve the environment, which plays such a crucial role to preserving the beauty of the Red Sea.

Whitetips return to Elphinstone

Report from Fraser's dive instructors, Paul Vinten and Lisa Gates

We’ve just finished another trip to the Brothers & Elphinstone, and to our great pleasure, we have discovered that the Oceanic Whitetip sharks are back at Elphinstone!

First thing in the morning we had one shark circling the boat. For the second dive we dived on the south plateau and encountered no less than three sharks hanging around together.

Last September/October we had four sharks here for about six weeks, so we can only hope that their earlier appearance this year means they might stay for longer.

The Oceanic Whitetip - some interesting facts and figures

 a large, heavily built shark growing up to 390cm, rarely found over three metres in length, and weighing about 65kg.
 found world-wide in oceanic tropical and warm-temperate waters to a depth of 200m.
 feeds mainly on oceanic bony fishes, cephalopods, turtles, sea birds and floating garbage.
 catches its prey by using its lower, pointed teeth to hold its catch, while the upper, wider teeth act as a saw, cutting out pieces of flesh.
 can be very aggressive and unpredictable when they sense food.
 colour varies from grey to beige or even bronze with a white under belly.
 a slow moving, perpetually swimming species, but with short bursts of activity.
 usually a solitary shark, it is very bold and very persistent in investigating potential food sources and for this reason must be considered a potentially dangerous shark.
 considered to be the top oceanic predator ahead of the blue and silky shark – the two other main open ocean predators, often dominating them when it comes to sources of food.
 give birth early in the summer to as many as 15 live young of about 70cm in length following a gestation period of 12 months.
 attacks on humans have been recorded, although mainly in association with plane crashes, shipwrecks etc.
 considered to be one of the four most dangerous sharks to humans, not taking into account the number of divers who encounter these animals without any detrimental effect whatsoever!
 no known cases of attacks on divers but, nevertheless, this shark must be treated with the utmost respect.

Pics by Paul Vinten

August 17, 2004

Proud message from HEPCA

HEPCA (Hurghada Environmental Protection & Conservation Association) has recently completed the installation of 45 moorings in the Saint John’s area.

With these new installations, HEPCA is extremely proud to declare that the mooring system is covering the whole Egyptian Red Sea area. The team also helped with the damage assessment that was done by the EEAA rangers to measure the damage caused by the very unpleasant accident of the boat, Kahramana, which, unfortunately, went down to 100 meters. All guests were rescued and no damage was done to the reef.

HEPCA would like to thank all members of the community who helped in making this installation trip a success.

August 12, 2004

Vancouver Freediving Championships - final results!

The AIDA World Championships 2004 was a close competition with everything hanging on static today (11 August).

Dave Harries as the 'ultimate alternate' who entered as an independent competitor, beat the UK static record with an amazing performance of 5 mins 58 seconds but only stayed at the top for about two hours. He has ended as the top independent overall.

He was beaten by Sam Still, with a fantastic 6 mins 14 seconds! Dave King had a comfortable 5 mins 56 and Mark Harris with a touch 5 min 47 seconds. It was tense but they all pulled through with clean performances to put them in second place overall.

The UK women gave solid safe performances today in static with Anne-Marie pulling off 4 mins 27 seconds, which is a personal best in competition. Hannah played safe and came up at 3 mins 56 seconds, Suzanne also played safe and came up at 4 mins 15 seconds but was given red cards from the judges,

This was appealed and Suzanne won the UK women’s ending in 4th place overall.

Superb performances from the whole of the team place the UK as a whole as third in the world!

Congratulations to the whole team for striking performances and dynamics.

Inspired to have a go? Emperor now run dedicated freediving courses in Soma Bay and Hurghada - ideal for all levels from learner and beyond! Email reservations@emperordivers.com for more information.

August 02, 2004

Marsa Alam upgraded

Emperor Divers Marsa Alam dive centre has just been upgraded to 5 Star IDC status by PADI.

IDCs will be offered here in the near future.

Watch this space - and congratulations to the team!

Hurghada couple do it underwater

Emma Davies and Mark Platt chose to announce their love for each other in a rather unusual way recently.

Both are regular guests of Emperor Divers in Hurghada and Mark, whilst not quite popping the question underwater, certainly managed to produce a beautiful engagement ring for Emma and place it on the third finger, left hand!

Staff at Emperor joined the watery celebrations - both during the dive and, no doubt, afterwards in the bar!

Congratulations to Emma and Mark - does this mean Emperor need to book the underwater wedding ceremony?