The Sharks at Ras Mohamed: Angel Blacktip Blacktip Reef Blue Great Hammerhead Great White Grey Reef Lemon Leopard Nurse Oceanic Whitetip Sand Tiger Scalloped Hammerhead Silvertip Tiger Whale Shark Whitetip Reef Zebra

There are almost 400 species of sharks living in the seas today. All sharks are from the Selachian order of the subclass Elasmobranchii where they are found with their cousins, the rays. They are chondrichtyes of the vertebrata phylum. Although many would differ, the general classification of sharks comes in five distinct suborders: Hexanchiformes, Pristioformes, Squatiniformes, Galeiformes, and Squaliformes. Each of those suborders have a number of families and genus which is dealt with in greater detail when we look at the different shark species.
Sharks and rays are very similar in many ways and they are also closely related to sawfish, guitar fish. The differences between these two groups not that significant and somewhat obscure. In fact you could say that rays are just flattened sharks, with gill slits under the body instead of on its side, and its pectoral fins joined to the sides of the head. All sharks' skeletons is composed of cartilage, whereas most other fish have skeletons composed of bone. Another distinctive feature is that male sharks have claspers instead of the pelvic fin found on bony fish. These claspers are used during mating to inseminate the female. Anatomically, sharks are also characterized by the fact that they have five to seven gill slits instead of the one gill opening found on other fish. Indicative of being an ancient sea fish, sharks have no swim bladder, no rib cage, but all have a spiral valve in the intestine for better absorption of digested food. Another very interesting characteristic of sharks is, believe it or not, they are quite clumsy and are not very good at subtle maneuvers because they do not have much fin mobility.
Now, let us see some of the species found at Ras Mohamed :

This is a relatively common fellow here around the reefs. The carcharhinus melanopterus is from the family Carcharhinidae which makes him one of the Requiem sharks. It is a small shark that rarely grows more than a 1.5 meters . It has a short, round snout and a large second dorsal fin. It is yellowish gray in color with a clear black blotch on all its fins, hence the name. Its first dorsal fin is otherwise lighter in color then the rest of the shark. this shark is viviparous giving birth to 2 - 5 but has a long gestation period of 15 months. You will see this shark at Ras Mohamed close to the reef walls but you got also see it very close to shore and even in the Mangrove Channel when the tide is up. As a reef species, it feeds on reef as well as pelagic fish as well as shrimps and squid. It is markedly active at night when it prefers to feed. Although not considered very dangerous because of its modest size, this species has been known to have bitten people elsewhere in the world, especially swimmers in shallow waters. This has never occurred at Ras Mohamed. An interesting detail about this shark is that it has adapted well in in the Mediterranean where it has migrated after the opening of the Suez Canal. In fact it is found in relatively large numbers there and as far west as Malta.

A magnificent creature that is extremely beautiful and slender as it is powerful and absolute. This here is a marvel of nature. With its serrated triangular teeth,pointed snout and round black eyes, the great white shark has one of the highest developed sensory organs in any being. Through the ampullae on its skin, it can detect minimal electric impulses from great distances. This is a shark that has undeservedly acquired a very bad reputation after the the release of Peter Benchley's Jaws. Recently it has been discovered that the majority of attacks that have been wrongly attributed to this huge shark, were in fact carried out by the relatively smaller but much more dangerous Bull shark. Another misconception about the great white is that nothing in the sea can challenge it. Again this was disproved when a killer whale cow and calf were seen butchering a 3 meter great white shark in 1997. This is not to say that you should jump in the water when you see one of these boys. Happily swimming alongside it, you will not ! This is still one of the largest and most ferocious living creatures in the sea which has been responsible for many attacks on humans and are capable of, and have eaten humans alive in the past. That being said, it should also be mentioned that Australian Jeremiah Sullivan did just that in September, 1997 off of South Australia. He happily swam alongside a 4 meter great white and even hitched a ride by grabbing on to his upper tail. The Great White Shark, also known as Carcharodon Carcharias, is very rarely seen at Ras Mohamed, yet it is certainly here. Although it mainly feeds on sea lions and seals in other areas where it is occurs in more abundance such as off the coasts of Northern California, the Cape, and Southern Australia, our great whites here make due with the occasional pods of dolphins, and some tuna. A rare occasional treat for it is the dugong. It is a member of the Isuridae or mackerel family of sharks which is of the Galeiformes suborder. The lifespan of a healthy great white is quite long and can easily extend up to 100 years. It has an average length of 7 meters although it can reach up to 10 meters in length with an average weight of 2,500 kg. Great whites give birth to live sharks which reach sexual maturity at about 10 years of age. Due to the hype about this specific shark, many people have sought and killed it. For this reason, the great white is now a protected species in many parts of the world.

Although a pelagic shark usually found in open waters, this boy is very much present at Ras Mohamed and is in full force here. In fact there are so many of these sharks off the reefs here that you are bound to see at least one if you only do one dive at any of the Ras Mohamed reefs. The reason for this being a favorite place for this large predator is that the vertical walls rise from a depth of up to 1,000 meters. Here they can chase and catch their favorites: tunas and dolphins. This is not to say that it eats nothing else. This is a shark that is quite opportunistic and makes due with all other kinds of fish, shellfish as well as some of the exhausted migratory birds that make a stop here in large numbers at Ras Mohamed. Our shark , however should not be confused with the much smaller and docile Whitetip reef shark which is also found here in abundance. This shark gained instant notoriety around here when it became the first shark to attack a swimmer off of Marsa Bereika at the North of Ras Mohamed in 1996-more about this is in the shark attacks section.The Oceanic Whitetip is also known as Carcharinus Longimanus. It is from the Carcharhinidae or requiem family of sharks, along with the Tiger and Blue sharks. It is found all over the world except for the poles but prefers water temperature higher than 20 degrees Celsius . This again is another reason why there are so many of these sharks here at the Northern end of the Red Sea. The oceanic white tip can be easily distinguished by its strong, wide triangular serrated upper teeth. It has unproportionately larger pectoral fins and the characteristic white blotch on the tip of its dorsal fin, hence the name. Although you will not see it at first, you will know that it is there when you see a congregation of pilot fish sworm, as if they were bees by which they cover the frame of this magnificent large predator.Though it is smaller then the great white, this is still one of the biggest sharks there is and can easily reach length of up to 5 meters long. Another unfortunate characteristic of this shark is that is extremely unpredictable. There are many accounts of divers from around the Sinai and as far south as Om-el-Oroush in Sudan who claim that they spotted and swam amongst the oceanic whitetip without any incident. On the other hand, there is an equal number of accounts from all over the world where oceanic whitetips initiated unprovoked attacks on surfers, swimmers and divers. It is now also being proven that most of the fatalities that occur as a result of shark attacks to plane and shipwrecked survivors are credited to none other than Mr. Carcharinus Longimanus: the oceanic whitetip. The only certainty about this species is that if you see large schools of tuna or a pod of dolphins, you can be sure that the oceanic whitetip is not very far away.

Although a pelagic fish, it was really just ten years ago when you could see the whale shark, the largest fish of em all, right here off of Shark Observatory. Now this gentle and shy creature rarely makes an appearance this close to shore because of the amount of divers that frequent the area on a daily basis. It is reported that there are some that still come to the closed bay at Marsa Bereika and that is a good thing. You can however still see this beautiful shark in the open waters of the Red Sea some ways south of Shark Reef. The whale shark is also known as the Rhincodon typus. It is a deep dark grey in color with white spots covering its entire body. As the largest fish in the sea, it usually reaches lengths of 16 meters and more. It has a large flat head with an incomplete snout and has an anal fin and two dorsals. The whale shark also possesses unique filter screens in its gills. It also has thousands of minute sized teeth which it does not use since it is a suction filter feeding species. This means it just opens its mouth and lets the food get sucked right in. Its diet mainly consists of plenktonic crustaceans but it also eats small fish and occasionally a fish as large as tuna is sucked in and duly digested. This is an especially comforting thought when you swim with these gentle creatures ( many people do, when they surface ) as throughout your interaction, you will not be worried whether this shark is contemplating having you for lunch or not. That being said, there is an account of a Japanese swimmer who was recently sucked in by one of these guys for a very brief period before being spat out. These sharks can be seen in groups of four or sometimes much more. They are generally not very troubled by divers and will come up to you to investigate. In return, you are permitted to hitch a small ride before it gets bored and dives in the deep. This shark is ovoviviparous which means that their young are born live from eggs that fertilize inside the pregnant female. This is a great migratory species which follows the plankton but is limited to water temperatures between 20 to 25 degrees Celsius as this provides the optimum conditions for plankton growth. Since the water around Ras Mohamed is always within this range, and their is ample plankton all the time, this shark is usually present throughout the year here.

This is a little fellow that we hope you will see often when you dive the reefs here at Ras Mohamed. He is not really that little as this shark can reach lengths of more than 2 meters. Okay, so he is not the great white but he is still taller than your average basketball player! The whitetip reef shark, or the triaenodon obesus, is another one of the requiem or Carcharhinidae sharks. It has a very short, broad snout with a distinctive white spot usually found on its first dorsal fin as well as the upper lobe of its tail fin. Curiously, it has oval shaped eyes. It reaches weights of up to 180 kg. If you are doing your diving during the day, then you should look in some of the caves, especially the ones at Ras Atãr. Hopefully you will see this shark resting up until the fall of night. It is much more prevalent if you are doing a night dive where you will see it in action chasing schools of fish, squid, crabs, and lobsters. Although it has rarely attacked humans, all sharks are potentially dangerous. Try spearfishing while you are here and you will know exactly what we mean (we are only kidding about the spearfishing. It is completely ILLEGAL here). In any event, it is not a pretty sight when this shark goes into feeding frenzy.