The red sea coast heads south from the Suez canal for about 500 miles. There is a range of places which are good for diving
Hurghada underwater gardens: until recently largely unknown, it is now a place which people come from all over the world to see the underwater world either with snorkels or diving.
Sites of merit include
• Dolphin house: A pinnacle with a half moon coral. Covered with table corals and giant fans and home to several dolphin families
• Small Giftun (within Giftun Island national park) is a fantastic playground for experienced divers. Caves, canyons, steep walls, black coral, white tip sharks, Barracuda, and whale sharks
If you work along this coast, do fill in the form to add your location
This reef encircles the whole island by a narrow band of coral reef. The island has 54km of coastline, which means there is a great deal of reef. There are thought to be around 80 good diving sites, with 6 considered amongst the best in the world.
On the southern side of the island, the sea floor falls away just 100m from the shore, which means that gentle slopes covered in coral, give way to incredible coral walls. Huge numbers of fish are all around, as well as bigger creatures off the coast.
Sian ka'an biosphere reserve, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
Bottlenose dolphin, Sea green turtle, Caribbean manatee, Central American Tapir, Forest condor or real condor, Jaguar, Howling monkey, Ocelote in Sian Ka’an, Western manatees can all be found in this reserve.
The reserve is made up of tropical forests, mangroves, marshes and a large area of ocean. The reserve’s name can be translated as gate of heaven.
The reserve covers over 5000 Square km, Part of which is land and the rest is in the coral sea and includes a large area of coral reef.
This is an 8 minute video of someone exploring some of this reserve
With the Colorado river in the north to the Baja peninsula in the south, the sea of Cortez is relatively large and is scattered with around 240 islands. While there is some wildlife to be explored on some of the islands, the seas are also teeming with a wide variety of species. On the surface blue fin humpback and sperm whales can be seen, alongside bottlenose dolphins Guadeloupe fur seals and leaping Mobula rays. There are also a wide variety of sea birds. As well as all this that can be seen from a boat, there is also a large number of coral reefs, meaning it is hugely popular with snorkellers and divers as well.
Coral reefs are really important. While they only cover a small area (under 1% of the earths surface area) they support about 25% of all marine life, including more than 4000 species of fish.
The coral itself is actually usually quite a dull colour, the brilliant colours of coral reefs come from the algae that lives within its coral tissue. These algae’s are called Zooxanthellae and in return for their home, the algae supply most of the corals nutrients.
The problem, is that these algae are very sensitive to temperature changes, and so if the sea remains unusually warm or cold for more than a few days, the algae leaves the corals and this is called a bleaching. This bleaching has occurred more and more recently in the last few years.
As a result of this, it is feared, that up to 90% of the corals worldwide will be lost by 2050.
This is where the red sea corals become so interesting.
The red sea coral reef looks the same as any other reef, but it appears that there is a difference, that might be the key to saving reefs around the world
Just 2 years ago, researchers found some corals in the Gulf of Aqaba, a trench between Israel, Jordan and Egypt which could withstand higher temperatures for longer. Just 1 degree above normal, sustained for a week can be enough to cause bleaching. If the temperature does not fall quickly, the corals will die. Yet here, corals have been seen to survive temperature rises above 7 degrees. It is thought that these corals have developed these abilities because they regularly suffer large temperature changes.
If they can identify corals that have this ability, and translocate them into new reefs, they will cross-breed. As the heat resistant corals are heat resistant, they are likely to survive far longer and therefore be able to pass on their heat resistant trait into the whole reef.
Given the rapidly warming planet, we only have about 30 years to act. Apart from their own intrinsic value, coral reefs are also worth roughly $600,000 per square kilometre each year, through protecting coastlines, increased tourism, medication and a whole lot more effects.
This is a fantastic possible save for the worlds reefs, time will tell if it works.
