Ras Mohammed: Still Beautiful, and Showing Wear

Ras Mohammed National Park sits at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. I had wanted to dive it for a long time. The reef is still impressive. I also spent a lot of the dive looking at white coral and broken bits where people had been careless.

The reef

The start was a normal Red Sea drop: clear water, a lot of fish, tall coral. Barracuda, lionfish, and anthias were on the reef. Deeper sections looked healthier, probably because fewer people go there.

Then the bleaching started to show. Patches of coral that should have been colored were pale. Bleaching happens when stressed coral pushes out the algae that feed it and give it color. The coral can recover if conditions improve. If the stress stays, it dies, and the rest of the reef feels that.

Too many divers

Ras Mohammed is busy. That is the other problem. I saw coral that had been kicked or knocked, the kind of damage you get when buoyancy is sloppy and there are too many people on the same site. Some of that is inexperience. Some of it is just volume.

A park boundary does not stop overtourism. Diving is how I got to see this place. It is also part of the pressure on it.

Coral bleaching, briefly

• Corals bleach when they expel the symbiotic algae inside them, often because the water is too warm.
• Those algae provide food and color. Without them the coral turns white and gets sick more easily.
• Climate change is a main driver, in the Red Sea as elsewhere.
• Recovery is possible. Long stress is not.

What actually helps on a dive

• Buoyancy. If you cannot hover, you will hit something.
• Do not touch coral or animals.
• Dive with operators who brief this and mean it.

Ras Mohammed is still a site I would go back to. The fish and the deeper coral are enough for that. I would also go back knowing the shallow reef is under it, and that our fins are part of the story.

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Summary:
Southern Sinai, Red Sea. Barracuda, lionfish, anthias, and coral that is still strong in deeper water. Bleaching and diver damage on the shallower reef. The park needs better diving habits as much as it needs protection on paper.