The best time to see them is from late spring to mid-summer, but a whale shark does what a whale shark wants.
They can, however, turn up from time to time pretty much anywhere, including reefs much closer to shore. Whale sharks are most likely to be encountered at the offshore reefs of St John’s in the south, and also the Brothers and Daedalus on liveaboards out of Hurghada. They are found at other offshore reefs such as Daedalus, Rocky, Fury Shoal and Zabargad, but are most often associated with the Brothers. They are rare visitors to the reefs of Sharm El Sheikh but are spotted on an almost daily basis at the offshore Brothers Islands, often waiting underneath the liveaboards and providing close encounters with divers. Oceanic whitetip sharks are distributed throughout the Red Sea. Big-eye thresher sharks ( Alopias vulpinus) are sometimes spotted in Ras Mohammed but are more often found around Daedalus and the Brothers Islands, and also St John’s between September and February They are sometimes spotted on the outside of Jackson Reef in Tiran, but surface conditions are often harsh and need to be perfectly flat to make the dive. Scalloped hammerheads are mostly encountered at Elphinstone and Daedalus reefs, and further south in St John’s National Park where they can sometimes be found schooling in numbers during the summer months. Grey reef sharks are of the ‘classic’ shark form, with a grey dorsal fin and darker shaded pectoral and tail fin tips. They are easily identifiable by the white tips of their dorsal and upper caudal fins. Whitetip reef sharks (not to be confused with their oceanic white-tip cousins) reach a maximum size of about 1.5m in length, with slender, flat bodies. Whitetip reef sharks and grey reef sharks can be encountered at almost any dive site throughout the year. Whale sharks ( Rhincodon typus) are infrequent visitors, but there are numerous sightings each year. Species such as the whitetip reef shark ( Triaenodon obesus) and grey reef shark ( Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos) are two of the most commonly encountered on Egypt’s reefs, with scalloped hammerheads ( Sphyrna lewini) and oceanic whitetips ( Carcharinus longimanus) frequently found at offshore reefs. There are 44 species of shark listed as present in the Red Sea, although most of them are rarely, if ever, seen by scuba divers. SHARKS Whale shark (top), oceanic whitetip (bottom left) and scalloped hammerhead (bottom right) all have a presence in the Egyptian Red Sea The Red Sea’s clear waters allow sunlight to penetrate much deeper than other tropical destinations, making the extent of coral and the vibrancy of its colour nothing short of spectacular. More than 200 different species of coral are found among its reefs, and more than 1,200 species of bony fish, at least 10 per cent of which are endemic. One of the best reasons to go scuba diving in the Egyptian Red Sea is undoubtedly the spectacular array of marine life. Revillagigedo Archipelago & Guadalupe Island.
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