Monitoring Shark Populations in the Red Sea

HEPCA is calling upon the dive professionals working in the Red Sea to support a long-term shark monitoring program. Their experience and ongoing daily activities in the water make them perfect volunteers, who can provide a wealth of information on the presence of different shark species and important environmental factors throughout the Red Sea.

Provided that these monitoring efforts can be sustained long-term, population trends, patterns of species distribution and habitat use will emerge, hopefully improving our understanding of the sharks' ecological needs and the chances for effective protection of Red Sea sharks in the future.

Step 1: Monitoring pelagic elasmobranchs (sharks & rays)

This part of the program is designed to gather relevant information on large sharks and rays frequenting the offshore islands and other drop-off reefs in the area. Since the majority of these dive sites is only reachable from safari boats, the main volunteers will be the dive guides regularly working the itineraries involving Brother Islands, Daedalus Reef, Rocky Island & Zabargad, St. Johns, and Elphinstone.

Generally, participating volunteers will be asked to fill electronic logs to document the sighting details for the different shark species they come across, including general information such as dive site, time and date, but also more specific environmental data like currents and water temperatures.

Dive guides interested in joining the program will be handed information packages including a USB stick with the sighting logs (electronic version only!), printed explanations on how to fill them (please read carefully!) and a list of shark species with ID-information. The USB stick also functions as a storage device for other relevant data, such as photo and video files for photo-identification (for naming and filing details, please read the instructions in "How to fill shark log - photo & video").

Filled-out weekly logs can be emailed using the contact form; findings and results will be published here and on www.hepca.com.

Step 2: Monitoring sharks around Elphinstone (& Farsha Elphinstone)

Elphinstone is one of the most popular dive sites in the central Egyptian Red Sea, situated about halfway between Port Ghalib and Marsa Alam. It is a long and narrow reef, oriented almost exactly north-south, with vertical walls along its sides and extensive plateaus at either of the narrow ends (see sketch). Divers flock to this exposed site about 10 km offshore for its spectacular coral walls as well as hoping for encounters with large pelagics, most notably sharks.

Being heavily dived for a number of years now, from safari boats, daily boats as well as speed boats, there is concerns about the impact of the large numbers of divers on the various shark species that used to visit this area.

In an effort to understand the dynamics of shark sightings, this part of the monitoring program is enlisting the help of all the dive clubs in the area of Elphinstone. With their daily operations (weather-permitting) they can give us a very detailed picture of the comings and goings around Elphinstone, both of sharks and dive boats/divers.

Special shark sightings logs will be made available to the dive centres and dive guides that want to participate. Depending on preferences, these sighting logs can be uploaded and filled online, or as electronic versions that can be emailed on a daily base.

Because of the short distance and its deep-plateau structure potentially attracting sharks, Farsha Elphinstone will be included in this monitoring program alongside Elphinstone.

Step 3: Monitoring megafauna across the Red Sea

Within the framework of a larger study on megafauna (whales & dolphins, turtles, dugongs, etc) the program will collect and analyse shark sighting information from the public as well as dive centers, divers and snorkelers from across the Egytpian Red Sea.

The exact design of the data collection is still being discussed, and will be presented as soon as possible.

For more details, any further questions, or to take part in the monitoring program as a volunteer, please contact me using the online contact form.