Crowley's day in Sharm

[Christian]

People might suggest that if there was no diving, no tourist resorts, no human factor, then we would not have these problems. If that is the case then pretty much every member of Scubaboard is guilty.

We are guilty to a certain degree. But to our defense, scuba diving money often save reefs from over fishing or destructive fishing. There are many places in the world that would have been cyanided, bombed and fished out piles of dead coral rubble if it weren't for scuba divers.

 

[macrobubble]

I spoke to a local today about the recent problems and the reaseons and consequences. One of the topics I mentioned was overfishing. He just shrugged and said that the locals have no choice. With so much unemployment, he said, they can do three things: sell drugs, break in houses or go fishing and sell the fish to the restaurants. What I think would be the best choice?
Without passing judgement on the validity of his remark, it at least shows that there is no understanding of the long term consequences of overfishing. They simply don´t see it as a problem! The same goes, by the way, for the garbage problem. The major question for most people here is how to get food on the table the next day.
The ball is in the governments court - and everyone who knows Egypt, knows that nobody will pick it up! Providing good education, creating jobs, educate people about environmental awareness - all this is not high on the agenda, if at all.
The resources and possibilities we foreigners have are limited. We can not change a whole culture or country. All we can do is to try and influence our immediate surroundings as much as possible. Refuse to use plastic bags when shopping, educate at least our own local staff, pay them fair salaries, speak to local opinion makers about the problems, don´t recommend fish restaurants (in fact I discourage my customers to order fish), give good examples by your own behaviour etc.

It is frustrating to see egyptians ruining their own country for short term profits. I have constant arguments with local tour guides from Sharm that let their snorkelling customers walk on the reefs without batting an eye. I have fights with egyptian divemasters from Sharm who have absolutely no regard for the local rules in Dahab (use of "fishbowl" at Canyon for example). Sadly, the most damage is caused by egyptians through greed, ignorance and indifference. Living and working in Egypt can be very frustrating most of the time...

 

[clarkaddison]

Some things never change.

Even over 5,000 years.

 

[MatD]

MatD I see from your profile picture you've been to Shark Reef recently - nowhere else here has that many snapper in the same place!

Anyone that ever doubted Crowleys experience and local knowledge, then you should hold your heads in shame
You are indeed very perceptive. One of my favourite pictures from last May, they were Balling around us with a small group of Barracuda buzzing about.

 

[Crowley]

I spoke to a local today about the recent problems and the reaseons and consequences. One of the topics I mentioned was overfishing. He just shrugged and said that the locals have no choice. With so much unemployment, he said, they can do three things: sell drugs, break in houses or go fishing and sell the fish to the restaurants.

This might be true but it's a weird thing for Sharm because unlike Dahab, there is no real "town" here - just hotels and tourists. Nobody really lives here. There is a small fleet of fishing boats and they are allowed to fish in certain areas; they just know that dragging a line as they pass by Shark reef in the morning or over Jackfish Alley in the summertime is going to guarantee a catch (The plateau at Jackfish used to be called Fisherman's bank) I

I actually know very little about this so I will endeavour to do some digging..

Cheers

C.

 

[buleetu]

hi all

great thread crowley,,has there been any sightings of white tips in the last while...any close calls to report,,,has there been any concluson as to why the shark or sharks were going for people at christmas time in the first place,,,


it all seemed a little weird the way these attacks happened at all i wonder has anything like this happened in the past at any stage,

i did see a report of a person who was attacked at the brothers or somewhere down south and that must have been a fatal attack by the looks of the pics but the report said they were duck diving down to the shark and possibly feeding it with something (this seems hard to beleive though,even the most ill informed person would hardly swim down to a 2 metre shark and hand feed it),,

it really makes u think twice about getting in the water when theres a sighting in a certain area,,as much as i can sit here reading in the safety of my sitting room and say to my self i would be straight in there to see one in the flesh,i think it would be a different story altogether if i had to hop in the water to do a current check on my own,thees no shame in living to dive another day mate