BDE vs St. Johns

[KrisR]

Class, Cheers

 

[Wisnu]

we'll be in St Johns liveaboard trip starting end of this week.
hopefully not too lazy to write a report.

 

[MomZo]

Id be really interested to hear how many days you get diving at the Brothers and what the highlights of the trip are when you are back . When do you go again?

An acquaintance just came back from a BDE cruise and they only stayed 1 day at Brothers doing 4 dives, starting at 4am. Then, they moved for 2 days at Daedalus.

Because it is now forbidden to throw the remainings in the sea and because longimanus shark fishing is now authorized during the off season, they didn't see any longimanus shark during their cruise while it was usually one of the highlights...

 

[KrisR]

I didn't realize they were shark fishing- that's very sad to hear if that's the case.

 

[Christian]

This is not really the season for owt:s. Not unusual to see them, but you can do a cruise w/o any encounters. I’d say I have seen them on 50% of the early July cruises I have made in the last 20 years (10 or so). Come September and October and they are more common, but less so other sharks. Commercial shark fishing is prohibited in Egyptian waters. Haven’t heard that it has changed, they might have shot individuals, which I know has happened a few times before.

 

[MomZo]

I am just quoting what was related by another diver who just came back from a BDE cruise.
I'm not sure it is "official" that shark fishing is authorised during off season. The information was communicated by the Egyptian staff on his boat.

If possible, this information could be confirmed (or not) by the next divers coming back from this safari.

 

[Christian]

Diving is year round, so there aren’t really any ’off season’, however summer and fall busier (fall is mating season for owt). Always a lot of talk and rumours.

 

[Wisnu]

We had St. John trip last week.
Water temp. 30 - 31 C, strong wind, we're not able dive habili.
Nice coral, cave and cavern but not for big boys. We only saw 2 white tip reef sharks and Napoleons. No OWT, no HH.
We dived ekphinstone on 24th 2x, temp 27C, lot of current but still no big fish.

 

[Sunn]

Pelagics are not used to be seen in St John's.
To have a chance to see them, go to Brothers, Rocky, Daedalus, all these islands surrounded by deep sea...

 

[Snoweman]

What is BDE? Google comes up with a completely different response than anything scuba related (unless it's free diving with great whites).