Researchers have discovered that Lake Bardawil in Egypt is the preferred foraging spot for female turtles that lay eggs at key rookeries in Cyprus.
Situated at the northern coast of the Sinai Peninsula, Lake Bardawil is a large, shallow lagoon with an artificial opening that connects to the sea. Initially created as a fishery in the 1950s, it became an ideal seagrass habitat for adult green turtles.
Egyptian nationals and foreign tourists alike have complained that authorities have requested permits for shooting in public areas, and at times seized cameras and forbidden shooting even if a permit is in place.
In a statement, Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Enani announced that 'photography enthusiasts', foreign residents in Egypt and tourists will be able to take pictures in public without permits and that “no one will be allowed to ask you why you are filming in public”
The Associated Press reported that the governor of the Red Sea province closed the area for three days. All "sea activities" have been banned, including diving, snorkelling, wind surfing, kite sailing and fishing boats.
According to reports, an 68-year-old woman from Austria was swimming in the Red Sea near the resort of Sahl Hasheesh when she was attacked by a shark.
“WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG?” I repeatedly asked myself during a recent trip to the Red Sea. One of the globe’s most iconic dive destinations, its spectacular coral gardens, prolific fish life and legendary visibility is beloved by divers the world over. Yet, despite nearly 30 years of diving experience, I somehow had not gotten around to it—definitely on my radar, but inexplicably regulated to the “someday” file.
Everybody knows the legendary wrecks of the Egyptian Red Sea from the Thistlegorm to the Salem Express. But there are stories of rarely dived remains of ships that rest in the shallow waters up north in the Gulf of Suez.
In September 2014, Egyptian national and technical diver Ahmed Gabr performed a deep dive off Dahab in the Egyptian Red Sea under the auspices and observation of adjudicators from The Guinness Book of Records. After the dive, Gabr was acknowledged for having reached the record depth of 332m, surpassing South African Nuno Gomes who made it to 318m in 2005, also off Dahab.
Born in Germany in 1968, he became interested in photography at a very young age but his real passion for the subject came to the fore after he discovered scuba diving in 1998. On becoming an instructor in 2000, he was able to combine his love for diving and photography by focusing on his 'Aquatic Photography' which has earned him his just reputation as being one of the best in this field. His work has been published in magazines worldwide and has won him many awards and accolades.
It only took Gabr 12 minutes to reach the record-breaking depth, originally planned to be 350 meters.
Gabr utilized more than 60 different diving tanks and multiple gases simply to keep himself alive on the trek back to the surface.
A team of hyperbaric doctors developed custom-made decompression tables to help Gabr back on his feet upon completion of his record-breaking endeavour.
I travelled with nine tanks and decompressed for 14 hours," he told NBC News. Deep sea divers risk drowning, equipment malfunction or decompression sickness.
It was 6:30 in the morning, and my dive buddy and I were hauling our gear back from the big zodiac speedboat after a thrilling midnight dive on the famous Elphinstone reef in the Red Sea near Marsa Alam, Egypt. While rinsing my gear, Ahmed—the local dive guide—started talking to me because I was diving a back plate, wing and long hose just like him, and he probably felt some kind of connection.
Forty-two miles off the Egyptian coast, the Brothers Islands rise up from the floor of the Red Sea 800 metres below, forming two small, flat tabletops surrounded by steeply sloping fringing reefs.
