Scuba Diving: 180 metres on Yolanda

Most of us UK scuba divers will have dived Shark and Yoland Reef.
Yolanda is one of the most popular sites in Ras Mohammed, in the Red Sea and most of us will have pics of the rows of bathtubs and porcelain toilets - and even the captain's BMW - that were dumped on the sea bed when the ship hit the reef in April 1980.

But what about the rest of the wreck?

The ship initially stood have out of the water was pushed to 50m at the start of 1987 following a big storm and then disappeared into the blue in March the same year.
And there she lay, out of site for more than 20 years.

The wreckage was discovered in 2007 by Leigh Cunningham who conducted several dives on the site and pinpointed its actual position and documented some of the wrecks intricacies.

Now a video has surfaced on YouTube of techie scuba diver Oxana Istratova and the Red Sea Explorers Team heading down to the depths and showing what's left of the Cypriot merchant ship.


The divers started the dive at 757 and spent a total of 261 minutes in the water. They documented the trip in great detail and aside from Oxana having a leak in her dry suit leaving her pretty cold on the last segment of the decompression, it went smoothly.

For a full report of the dive by Oxana and Faisal log on to Red Sea Explorers. It also includes the full run time schedule of the dive and the deco gases they used - and the best dive profile graph you could possibly have.

Save the Whale Shark

Whey-hey! I've finally done my bit for marine conservation after finding a great website creating an online photo-identification library of whale sharks.

I know it's only a small step.

But being a frustrated adventurer (no guts) and discovering too late in my life (now have a credit card and mortgage) that I should've studied marine biology at university (instead of something far less worthwhile) it's a big deal for me.

The ECOCEAN Whale Shark Photo-identification Library is a visual database of whale shark (Rhincodon typus) encounters and of individually catalogued whale sharks from around the globe.

By analysing the unique skin spotting patterns behind the gills of each shark it's possible to distinguish individual animals. The information can then be used by marine biologists to research the lives of these majestic creatures.

And I've contributed an encounter # 15122008134247

I was diving the White Knight reef, north of Sharks Bay, Sharm El-Sheikh, in Egypt's Red Sea in July (08), when dive guide Saffy spotted the shark at about 40m.

There had been rumours that whale sharks were about but I didn't really think I'd see one in the Red Sea. When we did my eyeballs filling the lens of my mask, but I managed to ping off a few shots on my camera.

I've now added three images to the database where they'll be more use than the "Guess what I saw while diving?" bragging that they have so far been used for.

I'll let you know whether we've captured a new whale shark on camera or sited one that has already been identified.

Whatever the outcome, I hope it will go someone to helping us to understand and protect these magnificent creatures.

And, I'll never moan about diving the house reef again. You never know what you could find.