I am often asked – what are you doing in Dahab, haven’t you seen everything underwater there yet?! Yes, we live nearby – in Sharm El Sheikh – but about once a week we come to Dahab for a day or two. This time we dived exactly one day, three dives. I just want to show what you can see and photograph underwater in one day. One Day on Dahab dive sites – nudibranchs everywhere!
The day began with a dive at the Moray Garden. We hadn’t seen the Phantom Nudibranch – Melibe colemani on this site before. So we decided to look for it. And we found it – as usual, among the Xenia soft corals, 25 meters deep. I must admit – I don’t photograph them anymore, I’m a little tired of them. But Irina – my wife and buddy – makes wonderful videos with them! I just realized that the video better conveys the uniqueness of this nudibranch.
But the finds continued – and we found a tiny Butterfly Slug – Cyerce sp. A hitherto undescribed and unknown to science species. I don’t think you have seen it before. It was found in Marsa Alam region before (Sarah O’Gorman) and now in Dahab.
The second dive site, the Cave, is perhaps our favorite. Old acquaintances – a couple of Harlequin Ghostpipefish Solenostomus paradoxus greet us. Then comes the turn of Dermatobranchus ornatus – we know this species from Indonesia but have not seen it before in the Red Sea. It sits on a small shell, as if posing. Nearby is a huge phyllidia, 7-8 cm. It is impossible to thoroughly examine the cave in one dive, we checked only the most obvious places.
Night dive at Mashraba. The crazy explosion of algae has been going on since February. And is accompanied by thousands of nudibranchs of several species. I have long stopped photographing sea hares. But my best shot of Melibe engeli is still ahead and from time to time I choose the largest one from hundreds and photograph it. In addition to the accompanying nudibranchs on the grass, we also find rare flatworms.
The day was successful – we found new nudibranchs and expanded the known habitat of Phantom Nudibranch by about 1 km to the south.
It was our usual day in Dahab. The high season started in January and is still going on. The water is not warming up yet – 21-22 C at the bottom. During a day of diving in Indonesia we can find more species of nudibranchs. But here in the Red Sea there is a higher chance to find something new. The example with Melibe colemanni confirms this. After we first found this nudibranch in the Red Sea we saw it at five different dive sites.
Photos – Andrey Ryanskiy and Iryna Khlopunova.
More information about beautiful creatures – Red Sea Marine Life book.
Good place to ask questions about Red Sea Marine Life