Diving in Eilat
Scuba diving is an important part of my life, and I spend as much time
underwater as I possibly can.
Here are some dive related resources that may be relevant to some of
you:
Tide
Tide prediction for the following
week for Eilat (Red sea).
The tide in Eilat is never very hight (about 1m at most, and typically
less then 70cm), but Eilat's dive sites are located in the bay itself,
which is long and not Very wide. As a result, when the tide is going
up, the current is from south to north, and when the tide is going out,
the current is from north to south.
Topographical Dive Maps
I have constructed this map of one of Eilat's best dive sites, the
"Satil" - an old Israely Navy ship, 47m in length, that was placed
underwater as a dive site. due to the conditions in this part if the
sea, the shop is still in "mint condition", and coral buildup has
begun. In addition, it attracts various fish and squid.
This dive map is the only one of it's kind that I'm aware if, world
wide. I had to invent the format myself, and I'm not convinced it the
best achievable. Comments are more then welcome.
underwater diving map of the "Paradise" and "Satil -
AHI Sofa" sites in Eilat, Israel
my own overkill design for a sheath for diving scissors
The first documented encounter with a Grate White Shark in the red sea's northern parts
On the 26th of Jan, Javiar Grinfeld, My Girlfriend and myself, Joined a guided dive under the fish farms in Eilat, with Marina Diver. For those of you who are not familiar with the area, Eilat is located on the north-eastern tip of the Red Sea, and the fish farms are at the northern tip of the bay. The ground at this site is at about -60m and could no be seen due to visibility and lighting conditions. The water temperature is about 20 degrees Celsius.
After some 10 min. in the water, we suddenly noted a shark in the depth. We estimate it at about 3m (it may have been larger, but definitely not smaller then 2-2.5m). The shark was accompanied by a single Remora, and seemed to take some interest in our group. He appeared below us (we where at about 14-17m at the time, and he was some 10-12m below us), swam very slowly, turning as if to get a better look at us, and disappeard into the depth.
Some five minutes later it reappeared, again accompanied by a single Remora, but this time a bit closer. he circled once, dove away and down until all that could be seen was his outline, and then reappeared, for one additional circle, at about 8m form us.
The shark's color was light gray and the section where the body connects to the tail was notably wide (this can be seen in the picture). The shark seems quite fat. Below are some pictures that was taken by Javiar Grinfeld. The pictures where taken with 50ASA slide film and a flash. Due to lighting problems (the flash dose not work at such distances), only one picture came out decent. In the other pictures (the dark ones), the slide looks completely dark, and only a significant enhancement shows any details.
From this picture, and from what we remember, we believe this is a
Great White Shark. The strong lateral keels and the symentric tail on
this shark clearly mark it as a member of the Lamnidae family (mackerel
sharks), while the shape, proportions and the location of the first
dorsal fin indicates that this is a Great White (Carcharodon
carcharias). The other significant alternative is the shortfin mako,
but the proportions seem all wrong (our shark is much too bulky, and
it's head is just not too rounded for a mako).
We would be happy to answer any questions you may have on this
encounter. We can be reached at
this and
this addresses.
Here are the pictures:
same picture, scanned again
the same picture, without any manipulation
