Sad News in Egypt

I know, that in the moment, there shouldn't really be any oceanics around... but last week, there was 3 individuals at Brothers again...

The webpage was never really meant to show the whole catalogue to start with! Would be a lot, and might cause people to look for "their" sharks themselves instead of sending me the picture/information. But I am working on an update, so that photographers can follow the sighting history of sharks they photographed... unfortunately, I am a complete idiot coming to webdesign & databases, so I asked a friend for help... Hope that will work out soon! But I am still working on the project, and hopefully get a chance to expand it to a tagging study in the near future...

Until then, any photographs are greatly appreciated !!!

Thanks!

Afriend of mine who has a couple of dive operations in Egypt has seen the photographs of the deceased, and heres what he had to say.

"All that is left of her right leg above the shin/knee is the bone and maybe an inch of flesh to the back of the leg, perfect imprint of the sharks jaw. She obviously tried to kick it off at the same time as her left foot is missing completely."

No wonder she died straight away.

Stew

I received this in an email. Very disturbing if true. Does anyone have more info on this?

On June 2nd, a French woman who was snorkeling on a reef frequented by divers in the southern part of Egypt has been attacked by an oceanic sharks. She died by haemorrhage. (http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/06/02/une-francaise-tuee-par-un-requin-en-egypte_1201492_3224.html)

As a direct response to the shark attack, Egyptian authorities closed the access to southern dives sites for a 30 days period to all diving operators and charters.

They have asked local fisherman to eradicate all and any shark from the area. They want this area to be cleaned and safe for tourists.

This information has been confirmed by local operators and boat captains. I can put you iun touch with them if you need to confirm this info.

We need to spread the word and let the Egyptian authorities know that killing sharks is the worst publicity for the diving community than anything else.

Typical knee-jerk reaction by government authorities. It would be like having our own government shutting down all salmon streams and ordering all the brown bears in Alaska be eradicated should a flyfisherman get mauled. At least (hopefully) not everyone is that stupid here.

I received this in an email. Very disturbing if true. Does anyone have more info on this?

 

On June 2nd, a French woman who was snorkeling on a reef frequented by divers in the southern part of Egypt has been attacked by an oceanic sharks. She died by haemorrhage. (http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/06/02/une-francaise-tuee-par-un-requin-en-egypte_1201492_3224.html)

 

As a direct response to the shark attack, Egyptian authorities closed the access to southern dives sites for a 30 days period to all diving operators and charters.

They have asked local fisherman to eradicate all and any shark from the area. They want this area to be cleaned and safe for tourists.

 

This information has been confirmed by local operators and boat captains. I can put you iun touch with them if you need to confirm this info.

We need to spread the word and let the Egyptian authorities know that killing sharks is the worst publicity for the diving community than anything else.

Many Wetpixelers are very well connected with Egyptian government and non-government agencies. Please disclose precisely the origins of this email. Who wrote it, when and to whom was it sent? We need to work with specifics. This is very important.

Thanks, Tim

It was submitted to Shark Angels. I do not have permission to publish the individuals name. We received it on July 1. I would imagine for those with connections (which I don't have in Egypt) one or two calls could confirm or deny it.

Let us know what you find Tim and thanks!

-shawn

OK Shawn. This is now in play. Movers and shakers have become involved... Just one thing. With the Hurghada Declaration so recently announced since the tragic incedent this policy is a complete anomally. Can you throw any more light? PM or email (fourtest466@hotmail.com) if you wish. Cheers, Tim

(Typo corrected in the email address)

My friend has not been told by anyone that he is not or was not allowed to take divers to any of the off shore reefs down south.

Stew

My friend has not been told by anyone that he is not or was not allowed to take divers to any of the off shore reefs down south.

 

Stew

We have not heard anything about this in Sharm either....

i have sent a few emails out to dive operators down south to ask them if they have been instructed to not go out to areas such as elphinstone, st johns and the brothers.

Stew

I have had 1 reply back and it seems that the story about stopping diving and killings sharks has no truth to it.

here is the reply.

Dear Stew

Thank you very much for contacting us at Sea Serpent Fleet.

I am afraid none of these reports are true.

We were advised by the authorities, following this tragic accident, to

proceed as usual but with more respect & caution towards sharks.

Right now the entire incident is under investigation as feeding is suspected

to have triggered this attack.

HEPCA has launched a new program to monitor shark behavior, especially

Oceanic white tip sharks, and many dive leaders have been recruited to

provide them with weekly reports.

Please note that shark fishing or killing is prohibited by law in the

Egyptian Red Sea.

None of our dive trips have been interrupted and we visit the off shore

reefs on weekly basis, with no incidents to report.

Please let me know if you have any other inquiries.

Best regards,

Riham G.

I imagine that I will be getting a few more email replies today and hopefully they will say more or less the same thing.

Stew

I just arrived back from the Red Sea on July 3 having week in the Borther's, Daedalus, and Elphistone. There was no mention of any banned areas or restrictions from the crew or operator. I asked if the incident that had occurred had impeded any activities since, and they said no, nothing, and said they have never had any problem - they don't feed the sharks. We saw three individual Oceanic White Tip's near the surface by the boat at the Brother's. One in the evening, one returning to the boat which gave each group returning a pass in 5m of water for photos without any incidents, and then near the boat later on our surface intervals. Other than the hammerheads, tunas, gray reef, dolphin, and amazing wrecks and reefs, it was business as usual. Threats of safety never entered my mind, nor needed a reason to, during the trip.

The feedback I received overnight also confirms that the email sent to Shark Angels would appear to be erroneous. My sources are a number of southern diving safari operations and a HEPCA committee member. I'll be in the north in a couple of weeks before heading to the south in August. So far, I'm not expecting any problems...

Terrific! Rumors abound but if it is business as usual and no cull is happening then this is great news. Good for Egypt!

Hi all,

I can confirm that there is no restrictions on liveaboards going to St Johns or any of the Marine Parks. I just got back from guiding a Deep South-trip and it is really business as usual. Aside from the fact, that snorkeling is forbidden in the Marine Parks and any other reefs where oceanics are sighted. Business as usual also in the way, that the Oceanics seems to have left to wherever they go in that season, like the last five years as well... I did hear the rumour about oceanics having been caught, but that is in no way encouraged by the officials in this country! It is - however - part of the global desaster hitting sharks...

Furthermore, there is a total fishing ban in the Egyptian Red Sea for the next three months! That will be lifted and permissions given back to local communities, because the ban seems to serve mainly to exclude the big fishing boats from Suez, which are doing a great deal of damage... But that makes supervising the fishing activities all the more easy, since officials are waiting in ports for those who haven't reported back yet. Sounds like there is a proper effort made in the right direction !!!

Fingers crossed !

This is all great news...

A defo roller-coaster ride of emotions on my behalf ...

Lets just get on with what we love doing... But very safely

Dive safe

DeanB

Lets just get on with what we love doing... But very safely

 

Dive safe

 

DeanB

Hear, Hear Dean

Nige Wade

All this talk about sharks in the southern red sea is frightening! I'm off to Hamata in September, isn't that where all the sharks are???

All this talk about sharks makes me want to cover over and dive The Brothers, Elphinstone and Daedalus... why oh why did I never do it when I lived in the UK? It's a bit more expensive now coming from Oz!

Latest from HEPCA:

Dear all,

It was brought to our attention from different sources that there is a rumor saying that the Egyptian Government has appointed and gave permission to some fishing boats to hunt the sharks in the southern red sea area.Please note that all these reports are simply glaring falsehood. The shark population is highly protected in the red sea by many laws and decrees.On the other hand which makes it very ironic that all fishing activities in the red sea region are on hold because of the new fishing regulations, which we hope that it will have a great positive impact on the fish stock and the reefs condition, accordingly there are even no fishing vessels in the area.After the very unfortunate incident that happened in the Saint John’s area we had to deal with a lot of false and misleading rumors and I would seize this opportunity to clarify some points.

•No dive sites in the whole Egyptian Red Sea were closed at any point of time.

•Severe measurements were taken against some the operators who were involved in any sort or form of shark feeding. Investigations took some time, as we didn’t want to come out with hysterical decisions that are driven and based on the magnitude of the incident and not on solid facts and professional reports.

•HEPCA would be very pleased to provide the media with true information instead of basing a whole story on a rumor or unreliable resources.

With my deepest regards.

Amr Ali

Managing Director

HEPCA