Underwater Highlights of Egypt

The waters off the eastern shore of Egypt's Sinai Peninsula are a wonderful place for people who like exploring the underwater world.   The low rainfall in this area helps to ensure that the water is crystal clear most of the time, and the almost landlocked shape of the Red Sea means that there are many species here which are found nowhere else in the world.

colorful basslets and wrasses on the reef   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

There are two main areas for diving, one in the south centered around the huge international jet-setting resorts at Sharm el-Sheikh, and another more laid-back area, but still with plenty of facilities, around the town of Dahab, which is where I stayed for about a week in January of 2004.   I made one trip down to Ras Mohammed National Park at the extreme south end of the Sinai Peninsula, but spent the rest of my time around Dahab's various dive areas.

fish schooling around a coral head   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Wherever you find anemones in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, there you'll probably also find anemonefish, which are immune to the stinging cells of their hosts and use them as a protective shield from their enemies.   This particular anemonefish is a local speciality called, appropriately enough, the Red Sea anemonefish or two band anemonefish.   As with most of these species, they're rather shy and it takes some doing to get a good photograph of them.

Red Sea anemonefish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Forster's hawkfish likes nothing better than to sit motionless on a rock or piece of coral, gliding down to deeper water when approached too closely.   The individual you see here is the less common maroon and orange color phase, which was once thought to be a different species (Paracirrhites typee) than the more common "blackside hawkfish", which has a broad black stripe along its side.   Although found all the way from east Africa to Japan in the north and Tahiti in the east, for some reason it seems to be absent from the nearby Persian Gulf.

Forster's hawkfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

One of the most spectacular fish you might bump into is this Picasso triggerfish, with colors, shapes and patterns befitting the artist it was named after.   This individual was in only two meters of water near the Blue Hole dive site.   Under its belly you can see the spine that allows it to wedge itself into crevices in the reef to avoid enemies, and which gives it the name "triggerfish".   Like other triggerfish, they can rotate their eyes independently.

Picasso triggerfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

The Picasso triggerfish is by no means the only fish with spectacular colors and patterns - here's an emperor angelfish.   They feed mainly on sponges, but will also clean parasites from larger fish.

Emperor angelfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Another angelfish with a noble name, the royal angelfish, which is as widely distributed as the emperor angelfish.   The royal angelfish is often sold for aquariums, but with a difficult to provide diet of sponges it usually doesn't survive long.

royal angelfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

These Red Sea bannerfish look similar in shape and coloration to the Moorish idol, but belong to a different family of fishes.

Red Sea bannerfishes   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Bannerfish actually belong to the butterflyfish family, even though their shape is much more like the Moorish idol.   The Red Sea has a marvellous selection of butterflyfish, many of which are unique to this body of water, like these masked butterflyfish, which also go by the name of blue cheek butterflyfish.

masked butterflyfishes

Here's another butterflyfish found only here and in the Gulf of Aden; it goes by various names, including the red back butterflyfish, Eritrean butterflyfish, Red Sea chevron butterflyfish and crown butterflyfish.

red back butterflyfish
Red Sea raccoon butterflyfishes   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Butterflyfish are usually found in pairs, but here's a collection of 14 or 15 Red Sea raccoon butterflyfish all in the same spot, and arranged very nicely for a photograph.   Like most of the photographs on this page, you can click it to bring up a new window with the photograph in computer wallpaper format, to brighten up your day!

There are so many different types of butterflyfish in this area that I've created a separate Butterflyfish of the Red Sea page so you can see them all.

giant pufferfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

It's a sad fact of life that some fish are not so much beautiful as... interesting!   With a face like this, the giant pufferfish definitely falls into this category, and perhaps it's also the reason it's sometimes given the unflattering name "starry toadfish".

It might be ugly, but the giant puffer certainly earns the "giant" part of its name, since it can grow to a meter in length, though this one was more like half that size.   No matter what its size, its fins always seem too small for its body, so even when it's trying to make its escape it can only waddle away rather slowly, its dorsal and anal fins flapping desperately side to side with little effect.

This one decided that it just couldn't be bothered, and its size perhaps made it feel that it would be too big a mouthful for me to eat, anyway.   In fact most of the photos of this species show it sitting rather sluggishly on or near the bottom.

More fish in the interesting file, this time Red Sea garden eels at the appropriately named Eel Garden at the north end of Dahab.   Since I free dive rather than scuba diving it seemed like I wouldn't be able to photograph these critters, since this site is usually swept by a fast current.   However I was fortunate enough to encounter 4 or 5 days of uncommonly calm weather with very little wind, and I also found that they were only in 7 or 8 meters of water, rather than deeper as I'd been told.   Like little question marks these eels hang out in the current snatching small food items as they drift past.   It might not be apparent, but the colony is made up of pairs of eels located adjacent to each other; but if you approach too closely then the whole colony will vanish in a flash into their burrows.

Red Sea garden eels   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

The blue spotted cornetfish is a much larger and more active predator than the garden eels.   Usually hanging vertically near the reef like some sort of plant life, the cornetfish extends its mouth wide and swallows any small fish or crustacean that unwittingly blunders too close.

blue-spotted cornetfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

A small group of blue spine unicornfish scour the reef for the brown algae which is their preferred food source.   Apart from the obvious "horn" which gives them their name, the other obvious feature of these unicornfish is the blue spines directly in front of their tail.   These sharp spurs are also seen amongst surgeonfishes and tangs, which belong to the same family as unicornfish.

blue spine unicornfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

An Arabian surgeonfish with its orange colored "scalpel".   Though vegetarian, they're aggressive and territorial, and it's thought that the razor sharp spines are used in combat and as a defense against predators.   Like many of the fish on this page, Arabian surgeonfish go by a variety of names, including Red Sea surgeonfish, Red Sea clown surgeonfish and Sohal surgeonfish.

Arabian surgeonfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Wrasses are a large family of fish found throughout the world, varying in size from very small to huge.   This broomtail wrasse might not be as large as the Napoleon wrasse, but it's still a large fish, and quite interesting, too.   They mostly eat molluscs, which maybe explains why they're a bit slow moving, and also perhaps why their eyes are so small.

broomtail wrasse   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

A much more typical looking member of the family, the checkerboard wrasse, sometimes also called a four-spot wrasse because of the yellow dots on either side of its back - in some areas only one spot is really visible on either side, as you see here.   This is the typical wrasse shape and size which makes them fairly easy to tell apart from other fish.

checkerboard wrasse   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Groupers tend to be much larger than wrasses, which makes them highly prized for the dinner table!   This is a peacock grouper, found all the way from South Africa to Japan, down to Australia and across to French Polynesia.   This individual has unusually prominent stripes, otherwise its coloring is typical.

peacock grouper   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Blue spots are not particularly typical of groupers, but this juvenile lyretail grouper has just as many as the peacock grouper.   It's said to taste very good and is sold in fish markets around the world.

juvenile lyretail grouper   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

An adult lyretail grouper, demonstrating how this species got its name.   There are actually two species which look very similar, this one with yellow edges on the tail and fins, and another one with white edges.   It might be easy to distinguish the adults, but it's difficult to imagine that the juvenile fish eventually changes color enough to look like this!

adult lyretail grouper   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

There are always fish and other critters around that you might not want to meet, and jellyfish like this one would come pretty high up most people's lists.   However it doesn't have any trailing tentacles and on closer inspection you can see that it even has a house guest - a small fish that uses the jellyfish as shelter and perhaps a source of food, also.   It's remarkable to see how the fish has turned the same color and transparency as its host.

jellyfish with symbiotic fish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

This juvenile common lionfish is definitely a critter you should avoid - its thirteen spines are highly venomous and quite capable of killing a person.   I'd never seen a lionfish before, but there were many at Dahab.   I photographed this one at night on the reef flats near the Eel Garden just a few minutes before my strobe battery compartment flooded, putting the strobe out of operation and bringing my night-time expedition to an abrupt end.   However, I saw several together during the daytime in one rocky area right beside the main public beach in Dahab, where large numbers of tourists were swimming around in blissful ignorance.

juvenile common lionfish   (click here to open a new window with this photo in computer wallpaper format)

Another creature guaranteed to freak out the fearful - a juvenile snowflake moray eel, discovered appropriately enough amongst the eel grass near the Eel Garden!   Like many eels they're usually nocturnal, but this one was poking around during the daytime.   Although moray eels are greatly feared, this species is actually rather shy and lives mostly on a diet of crabs.

snowflake moray eel