My first shark

On our holiday journey we decided to stay in Hurghada for several days before our going to Dahab. Every day we were going to dive by a boat for 2 dives. In the surroundings of Hurghada there are many nice diving sites, but for me the nicest is Gota Abu Ramada.

This site is about 45 minutes by boat south from Hurghada, 15 minutes from the reef Abu Ramada . Gota reef is circular and just breaks the surface . The dives are shallow because the depth is only 12m. It says that Gota is the most colourful, luminous and distinctive tropical reef of Hurghada. Many divers and snorkels go there to relax and admire its beauty

The bottom is sandy with many coral shapes which are splendid. This is the home of big murenas. Almost behind every coral you find their toothed jaws. Around the reef are many fish, mostly butterflyfish, goatfish and mainly blackspotted sweetlips. Frequent visitors are napoleon fish and bluespotted stingrays.

On our boat there are today eight people with us, one instructor with a student and divemaster with three people. Because my father is an instructor and the divemaster knows us well, we are planning our dive on our own. For a first dive we are going to the left side of the reef (the north) and at the afternoon to the right side (the south). The maximum depth is 12-13m. The maximum time – till we have air (in our case about 85 minutes). After the preparation we go to the well-known silence. We met first shoals of goatfish hiding in the shadow of our boat. The beautiful and sunny reef attracts to take photographs. Sweetlips with Masked butterflyfish are around us and they let us go through. We are swimming still further and further along reef. In the sand is hidden a stingray, a lonely tuna is swimming around me. We are meeting three lionfish in their hunt, they are distending their fins like fans and pursue shoal of small fish directing to the reef. Fast sally and the lionfish caught fish. We are turning back and swimming far from the reef. I want to search the sandy bottom if I find some rays. We are swimming slowly, suddenly my father turns back and signalizes to me:,, A shark!” My heart started pounding: ,, A shark,” passed in my head, ,, shark in 13m?” I swam fast, I had never seen the shark before. Yes, it´s true, the shark is lying down on the sand. I went slowly with my camera. I took one photo, and one more, but no, the shark rose and disappeared in distance. I couldn´t recover, I saw the shark. On the boat I talked about the shark and I had two photos as a proof. The divemaster didn´t believe me, he hadn´t heard about sharks here, but my photos persuaded him.

In the afternoon I was looking forward to going into the water. I dressed fast and jumped. About twenty minutes later we met a playing napoleon fish, it let me take the photo and it went with us for a while. We went far from the reef, suddenly I saw something in distance like rising from the sand. A big wave of ,,wings”, a cloud of sand, I started to swim to it, it was an eagle ray. It was fast, so after a few photos I stopped and I looked after it. It turned back and ,,landing” on the bottom, filtrates small organism from sand, than rised and disappeared in blue distance. My father signalized to me that is time to go back to the boat. I turned back and I saw something swimming to me. What is it? It is big and only a few meters from me: ,,My god, it is shark! Daddy, daddy, “ I caught him and still looked at the 2 meter long shark. ,,What happens?” Dad turned to me, I showed him the shark and I slowly went to the corals. My heart was pounding, another shark in same day, it´s impossible. The shark disappeared as suddenly as it turned up. Though it was far away, I turned around and watched if it didn´t follow us. Under the surface I saw a turtle how it took in the breath, swam elegantly around and disappeared in a shoal of colourful fish. Today it couldn´t be a star of the day. Immediately I put forth my head from water, I screamed: ,, A shark! A big shark!” The Divemaster was going to be crazy: ,,What? A shark?” He looked to me incredulously: ,,It´s crazy!” Immediately I showed my photo, that it was true. So from that day I have a nickname from him- Miss Shark. Now I know that the first shark was Stegostoma fasciatum and the second Hemipristis elongata.

So let anybody say anything about Gota Abu Ramada, for me it´s a magic place where I like to return and I will always remember that here I saw my first shark.