Fed up in Sharm El Sheikh

[jsex]

Crowley, you should go out on one of the fish feeding glass boats and take pictures while they feed the fish. Then drop the video off at the port .

This is actually a good idea.

 

[u&me]

Hello to everybody
First of all, i apologize for my english...its not that good. Im reading your posts for a while cuz im coming in Sharm for christmas. We are staying in Ras um Sid in Iberotel fanara club hotel, cuz they have a beautiful coral reef there. I dont dive, but i love to snorkel. Well im going going to snorkel just in the pool i guess . We decide it to go on a trip with a bottom glas boat, cuz my daughter want to see a corals, fishes etc. About feeding ... i cant more agree with you Crowley and maybe i will take pics if they are going to do this again and post it here when ill get back.

Have a nice day

 

[Crowley]

Sitting here freezing my b*tt off, staring at 7cm of snow that fell in just 2 hours this afternoon, I very much want to jump on the first plane over and get in the water to bring you guys some business.

And this morning - Heathrow and Gatwick airports are closed in the UK due to heavy snow - don't know about other countries - which means that for some people at least, even if thy wanted to get here, they can't!

Argh!

 

[clarkaddison]

Crowley,
I just saw the HEPCA release on shark slaughter. Sounds like another Egyptian fire drill. What's your take?

 

[Crowley]

not sure clark -

As per my other post, at the moment there doesn't appear to be anything to substantiate the report - at least nothing that's come from the authorities. The HEPCA report (at least, the one I read) doesn't contain any information other than that "it's happening and the authorities are turning a blind eye". That's not to say it's not happening, but with my limited access to information, neither can I say that it isn't.

As an aside - I ran into another guide today at the supermarket and he told me that yesterday some boats went out to see what they could find and sharks began to circle the boats - I have no idea what this is about and the story related is so vague it might never have happened.

Very little information has come from the "experts" that we didn't already know before it was published. Speculation about overfishing / fish feeding and livestock dumping was the topic of conversation around the beer table in the evening since day one of this whole sorry affair, and we get updates and rules and regulations but no real reason as to why. Why, for example are the heaviest restrictions on the local area north? Well, given the attacks all occurred in this area, it sort of makes sense but the "culprit" has been sighted as Ras Mohamed, traveling between the two areas, according to one report, every 2 - 3 days. So, we have some rules to follow which mostly - but not always - make sense, but no real updates as to what is happening with respect to ongoing investigations.

There are stories and rumours and I suspect a few people really do know what's going on, but they are keeping quiet about it. Probably some people are looking at what is the best option to line their own pockets - showing that the sharks have been hunted might well calm some nerves - for example - of the Scandinavian tour operators who are still not allowing their guests to book diving trips. Diving may suffer if people don't come back to our overfished waters, but as a percentage in terms of overall financial revenue for Sharm it would be more lucrative, I think, to make sure that beach holiday makers are able to do what they come to sharm to do.

The argument here is that business and backsheesh are mutually essential and therefore the authorities will by default act in the interest of the resort even if what they say does not quite correlate with what they do. If the "rogue" shark is unfortunately caught by a bad fisherman then I don't think there will be much hysteria from the authorities.

The cynical side of me thinks that it is probably true, but I really am in no position to say otherwise.

Cheers

C.

 

[Vassilis Vlachopoulos]

I wonder what impact -if any- did this unfortunate situation have on other "neighbouring" diving venues (Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba) ?
Did it also affect their business or did they manage to maybe "pick" some business out of Sharm ?

 

[InTheDrink]

Man, difficult situation. Weather in the UK and around Europe can't be helping at all either.

I'd be really interested to find out whether what HEPCA is saying is true, that could really turn this episode into an environmental disaster if it turned out that the wanton and random slaughtering of sharks is happening. I truly hope this is not the case.

Shame also that regular updates on progress by the experts/authorities are not forthcoming. In the absence of communication negativity breeds.

Crack open another Sakara mate, sounds like it's going to be painful sit out for lots of people. I'll drink one for ya here too (on hols in Western Australia).

Hang on in there,

J

 

[Crowley]

I wonder what impact -if any- did this unfortunate situation have on other "neighbouring" diving venues (Dahab, Nuweiba, Taba) ?
Did it also affect their business or did they manage to maybe "pick" some business out of Sharm ?

I think Dahab might have made a bit extra - String is based there so he will know better than me - but a few hundred people (at least) were being relocated to Dahab every day by the big dive centres and that doesn't include snorkel trips. I think it's been a bit inconvenient for some of the local dahab guides, having all these extra sharmers invading, but I don't really think it hurt.

Thanks again guys - new Sakara cracked!

Cheers

C.

 

[macrobubble]

Hi Crowley,

no, I don´t think any Divecenter in Dahab took any add. profit from the situation in Sharm. Maybe Sinai Divers here did, because they could shuttle clients from their center in Sharm to the one in Dahab, but otherwise no divecenter I know of did get any number of add. clients to talk about. The Sharm centers shuttled divers by busloads up here (plus about 10 dayboats which where moved up to Dahab) and kept the business to themselves. Well, the restaurants here were actually quite happy about the additional business...

Regarding the situation in Sharm:
I don´t believe that the drop in numbers has much to do with the Shark-affair!
I don´t think, thousands of divers cancelled their trips within the last 3 weeks because of the attacks on swimmers. I am convinced that without the attacks the situation would be more or less the same. Dahab is also very, very quiet and business is worse than last year - without recent shark attacks. In generell 2010 was not a great year and I hear complaints everywhere.

Yes, beachcombers might have been scared away, but divers would rather like the idea of diving with sharks. I know I would...
In my opinion we face a generell decline for reasons of monetary problems in Europe. With the continuing crises since 2008 on the banking sector, the economic impact and the uncertainty of the Euro-situation, people might be more reluctant to spent money on holiday (or simply not have it!) and save it for a (even more) rainy day. Furthermore, maybe the word is spreading around, that many divecenters had to reduce their european staff (for reasons we all know!) in favor of egyptian instr. & DM. People tend to want to dive with guides and learn from instructors that speak their language! I know of beginners who changed from Egypt to other destinations because they could not be guaranteed a course in their own language for lack of foreign staff. I spoke to one german instructor who told me that from 40 - 50 foreign freelancers he knew, only 6 are still here! The decision, to make freelancing close to impossible has hurt the industry in Egypt more than the responsible authorities will ever admit.

So my conclusion is, that the situation in Sharm is no singular event but spreads throughout Egypt. I also spoke to a friend who runs a big center in Hurghada. He was also not happy with the direction, the industry is going. They also suffer from a decline in customers.

The sharks are the most obvious explanation in the moment - but I believe the real reasons for a decline in business can be found in other areas...

 

[Crowley]

With respect to the drop in buisness - yes, there may well be seasonal and financial factors involved in an overall decline in business but it doesn't appear to have affected the regular business over the summer - in fact I think we've been busier than last year.

The problem is over the winter when business is slow anyway - at this time of year a lot of the custom comes from holidaymakers wishing to try intros or DSDs - and that has been impacted for sure - partly because of the restrictions but partly due to fear. People really did cancel their diving experiences because they were afraid to get in the water. One major tour operator would not allow any of their guests to book diving experiences through them due to - apparently - insurance complications. They could of course, book independently, but also a fair number of people didn't fancy the extra cost and hassle of relocating to Dahab at the time.

Long term the variation in visitors will work itself out, but the immediate aftermath is that there has been a significant impact on the dive business due to the shark attacks, for whatever reason that might be - and we are coming into low season and without the christmas busy time, there may be further repercussions. Airport closures have not helped.

Long term I don't think we have to worry - but we won't really be able to assess properly for a few months. We shall see.

Cheers

C.