The Red Sea laps the shores of an ecosystem seemingly free from life and its surrounded by one of the world’s largest and vast area of sand. That’s the reason for which many people find it difficult to imagine that some of the earth’s richest coral reefs rise from the floor of the sea’s northern reaches.
But for Eugenie Clark a marine scientist its not difficult she says that for diving she will choose only one place in the world and that is Ras Muhammad. She researched life in the Red Sea for more that four decades and she believes that this area represents best the marine splendors of the Red Sea. Dr. Clark advised the Egyptian government in 1980 to make the site a national park; an idea became reality in 1983.
In Ras Muhammad in deep water there is a coral plateau that is sometime called Garden of Eden, a place of silence. The rays of sunlight lights up the reef’s yellow, orange, and light green soft corals, hard corals such as stars, fingers and clubs are also found here, ensuring that the community is rock solid.
Sea anemones on the reef seem to glow a brilliant shade of orange, a color that comes from algae in their tentacles So many photographers tried to capture this glove on the film but till now no one succeeded. There is another very rare sight there and that’s bright-red lionfish swimming in open water during the day. These fish usually reside near the sea bottom, equipped with the venomous dorsal spines and waiting to trap smaller fish in nooks and crannies.
Several divers had seen the reef monster “George” the size of a beanbag chair. A hump head wrasse, this fish has chameleon eyes, cow like lips and a body pattern in the form of an intricate green maze on a blue background. Though George is a strange looking creature but in real it’s a friendly fish seeking only handouts from divers.
Some divers may have got unforgettable encounter with the reef triggerfish at Ras Muhammad. One moment this foot-long fish may be blowing water into a small hole on shallow ledge and on very next moment it may be charging at full speed with bare fangs. But only two feet away it will stop suddenly and will retreat. The triggerfish repeats this charge until it get assure that her nest is having no danger from the diver after that it goes about its business.
Another popular reef there is Anemone city, owns vast numbers of anemones. This reef is a swaying shag carpet of white and green tentacles. There are hundreds of clown fish and domino-fish darting in and out among anemone tentacles.
This Anemone city for sport divers provides a great deal of entertainment, and for marine scientists who are interested in the mysteries of the sea it a living laboratory where they can observe one of the most fascinating examples of symbiosis in the marine world-the relationship between clownfish and sea anemones. A clown fish for its part protects an anemone from fish that like to eat its soft tentacles and in return anemone offers haven for the clownfish, which find safety among tentacles whose stings, for some reason, don’t hurt it.
Another interesting aspect for marine scientists in the like of sea is clownfish. Like many other reef fish species these are also hermaphrodites means that they have both male and female sex organs. Such attributes increase the chance of a species survival. If a female clownfish is eaten or dies naturally, for example the largest juvenile turns into breeding female.
For adventurous divers they can explore caves and caverns at the site known as Fishermen’s Bank. In the darkness of the cave large schools of hatchet shaped glassy sweepers swim in tight formation, fluttering their wings and making swishing sounds as the sweep around divers bodies. Lionfish usually swim near the ceiling of the caves. In some caves the small openings in the ceiling give access to rays of light to go through in that makes a mesmerizing effect underwater for that a diver should have to be bold enough to swim here.
To know about that why the Red Sea has such a diversity of species, one thousand of tropical fish and four hundred species of corals for that scientists have to look long way back in time. Almost 30 million years a go the Red Sea was closed at its southern end. However its northern end was opened into the Mediterranean Sea that allowed the Atlantic species to enter and breed and 10 million years later shifts in the earth’s tectonic plates closed the red Sea’s northern end and opened its southern one, letting in species from the Indian Ocean. The tectonic shifts had provided the way to Atlantic and Indo-Pacific species to migrate in the Red Sea.
Other reason for such vast diversity of species in the Red Sea is the region’s exceptionally clear skies. The extreme sunlight provides rich solar energy for the corals and photosynthesizing zooxanthellae that live inside them. The more there will be sunlight the more corals will grow faster and healthy reef structures in the Red Sea provides food and hide to fish from predators. These perfect conditions make a healthier and more diverse fish population in the Red Sea, a wonder to behold.
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