Red Sea

Anemone Life

This was taken at "Nemo City" out of Marsa Shagra dive village. There are many anemones here with their attendant clown fish. I deviated from the program a little to show quite how much life was busily occupying itself there. Nearby were some garden eels. I'm sure there was a blue spotted Ray nearby and a moray and probably a lionfish because of course there were. Such is a reef dive in the Red Sea, it rather spoils us divers.

Sun is Getting Low on the South Reef

The sun is getting low on the south reef at Marsa Shagra. The South reef gets dark early, this shot is from 30m looking up the slope. Beyond the sand above is a coral garden against the upper reef wall. It always feels peaceful down here.

Sun is Getting Low on the South Reef - B&W

The sun is getting low on the south reef at Marsa Shagra. The South reef gets dark early, this shot is from 30m looking up the slope. Beyond the sand above is a coral garden against the upper reef wall. It always feels peaceful down here.

Blue Spotted Ray on the Hunt

A Blue spotted ray hunting through the sand at Marsa Shagra's south reef. Blue spotted stingrays are very common in the Red Sea, so much so to suggest that if you haven't seen a blue spotted stingray on your dive then you might not be in the Red Sea. My record for most blue spotted rays on one dive is in the 20s with 9 resting on one embayment. When shovelling through the sediment like this they are often accompanied by other reef fish eager to catch any morsels uncovered by the ray.

Inlet Sunset

The setting sun as seen from the shallows just off-shore at MArsa Shagra diving village in the Red Sea, Egypt. This view is towards the dive shed late in the evening from the inlet in less than 2m depth.

Sceptical Octopus Raises it's Brow

I spotted this sceptical Blue octopus, Octopus cyanea, on the southward reef. It merely raised an eyebrow at us but remained otherwise stationary for this portrait shot. These day hunting octopus can, if you're lucky, be seen stalking prey over the reef during the day. Their range extends throughout the tropical seas and oceans. They are famed for their quick change of colour, pattern and texture. In lighter modes they will remain still with a mottled pattern drifting across their skin like shifting light filtering through the water. Hours of fun ;)

Orange Coral Crab

The orange coral crab is common on the reefs of the Red Sea through the indo-pacific ocean. They live in mating pairs in cauliflower corals where they feed on the mucus produced by the corals and also defend the coral from predation by crown of thorns sea stars.

Shrimp Goby and Shrimp

Shrimp / goby. Goby/ shrimp. Teamwork on the reef. This pair share a burrow, one keeps watch, one keeps digging. The shrimp was played by Jack Lemmon in the film adaptation. These pairs can be seen from the Red Sea throughout the Indo-Pacific oceans. The goby, for it's part rests at the entrance to the burrow keeping watch for predators and photographers, alerting the shrimp to any dangers. The shrimp has very poor eyesight and so keeps in physical touch with the goby using it's antennae. The shrimp is quite industrious and spends it's day shovelling sediment from the burrow. The goby will often sift through this disturbed sediment to filter out food.

A lone Clear or Glass

A lone Clear or Glass (Urocaridella antonbruunii) cleaner shrimp tending it's eggs. These shrimp range from the Red Sea through the tropical Indian and Pacific oceans to the west coast of the Americas. They are eager cleaners of both willing and unaware fish as well as divers' cuticles. I actually spent quite some time trying to photograph a bunch of these hanging around on the underside of a small overhang. There was just enough current to make the tiny DoF and manual focus an exercise in fruitless frustration, so I gave up and took this relatively easy shot of a lone shrimp sitting still up top, out of the fray.

Saturday Night Feather Star

Night dive with some back-light feather stars. This is from the north reef MArsa Shagra dive village on the shores of the Red Sea. One of the smaller pinnacles was covered in feather stars from the early evening onward and so became the target of our night dive. They did not disappoint.

Green Turtle Eating Sea-Grass

This green turtle was busily munching it's way through the sea-grass in Marsa Abu Dabab in Egypt.

Resting Green Turtle in Black & White

Sometimes, when your strobes don't fire, one must make the best of it, and so we have a green turtle in black and white. This one was very much resting under a small table coral.

Scaramanga the Green Tutle

This green turtle in the Red Sea has a few barnacles attached in strategic locations, maybe it's auditioning to be a Bond villain.

El Canyon Caves

This is at El Canyon, a dive site near Marsa Shagra, Egypt in the margins of the Red Sea. The canyon dive leads through some narrow, enclosed swim throughs. It's quite fun but also has some particularly beautiful views where the surface light is filtered through openings in the cavern roof.