Alex and Tamara Double form a well-known diving partnership that
has probably logged more dives in the Red Sea than any other diving
pair. They have also explored a much greater portion of it than
most since they have spent many years involved in diving tourism,
operating several diving vessels from the Red Sea’s southern approaches
to its northern limits. In all their years’ diving they have collected
a few special places where they never tire of returning. Among
these favoured locations, the offshore waters of south-western
Arabia, south of the Farasans, are near the top of their list.
We asked Tamara Double, who is presently writing a complete diving
guide to the Red Sea, to share her secret with readers of Arabian
Wildlife. This is her story.
A dense forest of frosty-white thorny coral bushes covers the steep
slope of stark, black boulders as far as the eye can see. Dotted
amongst the white are brilliant, sulphur-yellow bushes which glow
as if electric. Rising through the canopy in wild disarray are
clusters of red whip corals, gently swaying in the emerald green
water like loosely coiled springs. Dense swarms of yellow fish
weave their way through the forest, among them snappers, sweetlips,
goatfish and butterflies – all are yellow. In perfect harmony
with this colour scheme thousands of pennant fish swirl around,
weaving in a mesmeric pattern of spiralling black and white stripes.
A leopard ray snakes across a white sand clearing and slips between
the black and jagged branches of a massive Tubastrea coral, while
a pair of Moorish idols dash by in single file. Overhead, in silhouette,
beyond dense schools of batfish and ocean triggers, a squadron
of mobulae flies by with bird-like grace. From somewhere in the
distance, deep, resonating booms herald the presence of giants,
as a colossal jewfish lurches into the depths with a mighty swipe
of its tail.
I am diving in the Red Sea, though in an environment so different
from the familiar blue water and towering coral reefs which typify
the Red Sea that it is hard to believe it is part of the same
body of water. The location is the south-western quarter of the
Red Sea belonging to Yemen, an area unknown to most and explored
by very few. The coast here is flanked by many inshore and offshore
islands, volcanic in origin, and ranging in size from mountainous
islands, several miles long, to the merest speck of rock, barely
exposed above the surface.
Yemen’s offshore island chain stretches southward for about 240
kilometres from Jabal at Tair, a solitary lighthouse island lying
80 kms out to sea, at the southern end of the Farasan Bank. From
here the chain is split into three main island groups called the
Zubair, Zuqar and Hanish. These are barren, uninhabited islands,
black and scarred by volcanic eruption and aeons of weather erosion,
frequented only by seabirds and local fishermen.
The sea around these desert landscapes, however, is a veritable
boiling cauldron of marine life that is outstanding in its abundance
and in its unique concoction of species. Because of its proximity
to the Indian Ocean this area is undoubtedly influenced by its
weather patterns, as well as by the interchange of water between
the two seas through the Straits of Bab el Mandeb. Numerous Indo-Pacific
species have apparently drifted into the Red Sea with the current
and established themselves in this south-western region, among
them the Moorish idol, Zanclus canescens, the leopard moray Gymnothorax
favageneus and several species of wrasse, fusiliers and triggerfish.
Alongside the immigrant life forms the usual Red Sea species abound
in Yemeni waters, though with some notable exceptions. For instance,
one of the most potent symbols of the central and northern Red
Sea – ubiquitous clouds of Anthias hovering above the reef, feeding
in the current, appears to be totally absent, at least from the
offshore islands. But if this rocky underwater environment lacks
some of the diversity of the living coral reef, it more than makes
up for it with the sheer numbers of fish and the glorious colours
of the encrusting algae, sponges and other invertebrates that
are crammed on to every square centimetre of available rock. It
is an area full of surprises and unusual events. here, some normally
solitary species of fish, such as the half-moon angelfish Pomacanthus
maculosus, can be found in large schools. Huge aggregations of
grazing fishes in a feeding-frenzy are also a common sight, as
are gatherings of several of t
he massive groupers known as jewfish Epinephelus itajara.
A clue to the enormous wealth and abundance of marine life that
is found in the southern Red Sea lies in the cold, nutrient-rich
deep water upwellings that occur in this area. The most extreme
manifestation of this is during late summer when the upper twenty
or so metres are around 33°C and dark brown with phytoplankton.
A distinct thermocline occurs at around the 20m. mark, below which
the sea is about 10°C cooler and dark but gin-clear. Masses of
fish mill around in this soup, engaged in feverish feeding activity.
Several unusual fish species, mostly snappers, are seasonal visitors
to this scene, often joined by manta-rays and sometimes by whale
sharks attracted to the rich planktonic ‘soup’.
Nourished by nature’s bounty and seemingly untouched by pollution,
over-fishing, or mass tourism, these southern reaches are one
of the Red Sea’s best kept secrets. One can only hope that any
plans for the development of this area will include the recognition
of its status as a wilderness of outstanding beauty.