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A Red Sea Scuba Scene (Part 1 of 2)

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Hopefully by now you should have read my blog about life onboard Scuba Scene Liveaboard. If you haven’t then you can find it HERE. Now it’s time to find out about how my trip went underwater. I was lucky enough to join M/Y Scuba Scene for a ‘Shark Week’ special exploring the Southern Red Sea with a particular interest in finding sharks. While also enjoying informative presentations from biologist and Red Sea Sharks extraordinaire Elke Bojanowski. It’s been 7 years since my last trip to the Red Sea and on the same southern route as I completed this time around. I was so excited to finally get back and see how life in the Red Sea is doing after so many years.

A coral pinnacle in the Red Sea is awash with life full of colour.

The diving started with a full day at Gota Abu Ramada with the order of the day including two day dives and a night dive. I was buddied up with a fellow solo male traveller and we quickly worked out that we would take a relaxed approach to the diving week and take our time as a buddy pair without a guide. I was chomping at the bit to get in and see what I’d been missing all these years since my last Red Sea visit. After a quick weight check we were off exploring the beautiful clear waters. Wow!! I was back and in love. Visibility so clear it’s hard to believe you’re actually underwater and then there it was. A typical Red Sea pinnacle towering through the water; I made a beeline straight for it and the closer I got the more I remembered. This was the Red Sea, this is what has people flocking here in numbers to dive. Anthias dancing in unison around stunning coral formations saturated in colour while your typical venomous predators camouflage into the cracks as best they can. A scorpionfish caught my eye as it lay motionless amongst the coral.

Mountains of coral rise to the surface throughout the Red Sea.

It was so refreshing to be back amongst the stunning colours and finding all the beautiful marine life between the coral formations and sand. It wasn’t long before I found my favourite typical Red Sea critter relaxing on the sand. The beautiful bluespotted ribbontail ray is ever-present on the reefs around Egypt but I am always excited when I find one. The lionfish too, but again I’m always eager to photograph the beautiful colours they both provide amongst the reef. Two great dives were had reintroducing me to Red Sea life and a relaxed night dive full of life added to a great day. Two octopus and a cute little cuttlefish were the highlights making me wish I’d put my macro lens on for the dive. What a great start!

It was time!! Time for why we were there and why people choose a Southern Red Sea liveaboard. We headed south to the sea mounts that break up the open ocean, providing the perfect stop gap for large pelagics to make an appearance on their journey. Our first stop were the Brothers Islands, with ‘Little Brother’ being the starting point for the first two dives. There was a slight concern seeing the number of other liveaboard boats around but it’s understandable after a tough couple of years and suddenly people are able to travel easier, no doubt a rush to enjoy the underwater world again. It didn’t take away from the beauty of what the reef walls provide at Little Brother island. A sea of anthias to swim through against amazing soft coral formations and stunning vis made me a happy boy. I also spotted a grey reef shark cruising the reef below, while some guests onboard saw a distant thresher shark at the North Point cleaning station.

My first glimpse of an oceanic whitetip shark in the blue.

While all this action was great, it was the oceanic whitetip sharks I was on this trip to see. A shark that had eluded me so far but I knew in the winter it was a great time to see them on this itinerary. They were top of my bucket list for a shark to photograph that I hadn’t already, so I was itching to get my chance. Word started to spread between the first and second dive that one was patrolling between a couple of the liveaboards moored up a small distance from our position.

Our dive plan (my buddy and I) was to cruise the wall along the west point from the North to the boats moored at the South Plateau – in order to get under the boats and hope to find it. The anticipation surged through my body as I hit the first mooring line as we drifted into the blue under the boats. The minutes passed and I wondered if my air would last. Then boom!! A heart-stopping moment as I caught my first glimpse of this perfect pelagic shark. These are the moments I dive for as the adrenalin burst through my body and my excitement was uncontrollable, pointing and shouting excitedly to my buddy. It was a relaxed meeting with a couple of relatively close passes before our time was up. A great start to the big southern dive sites and a sign of things to come. We finished the day with one dive at Big Brother and the beautiful Numidia wreck full of life. A site that I loved the last time also.

A single anemone with Red Sea clownfish has attached itself to the wreck of the Numidia.


Sean Chinn travelled as a guest of Scuba Scene Liveaboard and Oyster Diving. Scuba Scene is available to book exclusively through Oyster Diving. Please contact info@oysterdiving.com or call 0808 253 3370 to find out more or reserve your space!

Sean Chinn’s scuba diving adventure started in a freezing cold quarry back in January 2011. Maybe the reason he wasn't instantly hooked! However, after an amazing trip to Indonesia in 2013, he realised he needed to see more of the underwater world. With no photography background, he enlisted some help in developing both his diving and photo skills. This kickstarted his diving and underwater photography adventure which has become something of an addiction. Seeing and photographing wildlife is Sean’s real passion in diving but he is always keen to try new ideas.

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Go Diving Show 2025 Photo Stage Speakers: Anne and Phil Medcalf

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go diving show 2025

Anne and Phil Medcalf have over 45 years of diving experience between them and have been taking digital pictures underwater for more than 30 of those, and they are Photo Stage stalwarts, returning to the GO Diving Show in March for the sixth year.

In 2017, they turned their interest into a business and now own Alphamarine Photography Ltd, an underwater photography training and retail company. They have a highly rated blog on their website and a Facebook Q&A group with over 2,000 members worldwide.

They’ve written on underwater photography for Scuba Diver magazine and have presented on the subject at every GO Diving Show since the event started.

Their workshops and online courses attract divers from around the world. The couple’s experience as retailers gives them a broader knowledge base than most underwater photographers and expertise in using equipment from low-cost options to the latest high-end gear.

Finding the Art in Underwater Photography

The topic of Anne and Phil’s talk at the GO Diving Show on the Photo Stage delves into getting ‘arty’ with your underwater photographs.

Go Diving Show 2025 takes place at the NAEC Stoneleigh Park, Coventry, on the 1st -2nd March.

BUY GO DIVING SHOW TICKETS HERE

www.godivingshow.com

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Marine Life & Conservation Blogs

Shark Trust Expedition Dives in The Bahamas

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In our last blog we talked about why the Shark Trust had been in The Bahamas in December. With the underwater part of the expedition focused on getting 360 footage for a new immersive shark experience, OneOcean360: A Shark Story, that will be launched later this year. Now, let’s tell you a little bit more about the diving we did, along some more surprising shark sightings!

The Shark Trust 3-island expedition, which was fully funded and supported by the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, started in Nassau. And we were booked to do 2 days of diving with Stuart Cove’s Dive Bahamas. We packed in as much diving as possible, leaving as soon as the boat was loaded and returning as the sun was setting, covering 7 dive sites over the 2 days, with a mix of reef and wrecks to ensure we got as much varied footage as possible.

Pumpkin Patch saw us hang out with a very chilled turtle while Caribbean Reef Sharks swam along the drop off beside us. We visited a “wreck” structure built for the filming of a James Bond film that was now covered in bright corals and home to a multitude of reef fish. Steel Forest saw us diver some “proper” wrecks that have been sunk alongside each other. Glass fish swirled under overhangs and larger fish hung motionless in the wheelhouse. Southern Sting rays lay buried in the sandy seabed alongside. Our final dive of the day, as the sun started to set, Ridges, combined a reef and wreck where we caught a fleeting glimpse of a Bull Shark as we ascended the line. It was a great diving day that gave us the perfect introduction to the underwater world of The Bahamas.

Our second day was going to focus on getting close up footage of Caribbean Reef Sharks on both wrecks and reef. The Ray of Hope and Big Crabs wrecks are perfect for this. With our guide placing bait boxes inside the wrecks to attract the sharks, and with our cameras setup on the wreck structure, we could back away and let the sharks do their thing without us disturbing them or being in the 360 filming frame. With clear water and plenty of sharks, the footage we came away with in pretty striking.

Next stop: Bimini. Great Hammerhead Sharks are the number one attraction here. And we were able to join Neal Watsons Bimini Scuba for a 2-tank dive with these magnificent sharks, along with the Nurse Sharks that like to join in with the experience. But we were also able to snorkel with juvenile Lemon Sharks in the Mangroves, see Bull Sharks and spotted eagle rays from a submarine experience and from the dock side. Our second day of diving saw us dive the SS Sapona wreck and then experience the Caribbean Reef Sharks on the reef. Bimini really does allow you to pack in a load of shark and ray experiences in a short space of time.

Finally, we headed to Grand Bahama. Whilst much of our time was spent above the water meeting people working to conserve different marine habitats (watch this space for more information on this) – we did manage to squeeze in a couple of dives on the reefs here and were delighted to see both Caribbean Reef Shark and Southern Stingrays on both. Our final shark and ray experience saw us take a tour to Sandy Cay with Keith Cooper. We were able to get footage of stingrays, lemon and blacktip reef sharks on the seagrass and over the sandy seabed. Sometimes just in ankle deep water.

If you are heading to the Go Diving Show – then you will be able to see a short 360 film, using our VR headsets, that shows many of these experiences. Please come and say hello to the Shark Trust team on the Diverse Travel stand (340). We will also be on The Bahamas stand twice a day to chat to people about our experiences on the islands. And Diverse travel will have special offers on travel to The Bahamas should you want to follow in our fin-kicks.

To find out more about the work of he Shark Trust and how you can support us, visit out website www.sharktrust.org

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