Are There Great White Sharks In The Red Sea?

You may be off to dive the Red Sea and you’d like to know if great White Sharks live there. Let’s take a look…

So are there great white sharks in the Red Sea? There are no great white sharks in the Red Sea, as whilst the waters in the Red Sea range from 21-30°C (69-29°F), which drops to the great white sharks temperatures range of 12-24°C (54-75 °F), the white sharks would have to swim through the Arabian Sea, which doesn’t drop below 27°C (81°F).

The above answer may disappoint you if you’re hoping to see great white sharks in the Red Sea. But on the other hand it may be a relief if you’re scared of great whites.

The best way to dive the Red Sea, and especially the best and more remote locations in the Red Sea, is by a scuba diving liveaboard. If you want to dive with great white sharks, one of the best places in the world to do this is at Guadalupe Island, Mexico (which includes one liveaboard departing from San Diego). You can check the latest and best deals on liveaboards, and dive with great whites at Guadalupe Island, using the following window:

As an aside, in this article about where to find great white sharks, you may be as surprised as I was to discover some of the places where you find great white sharks! Place number 6 is the one that surprised me the most, but if you live in the States, you may be more surprised at places two, three and four.

But first, just because there are no great white sharks in the Red Sea, this doesn’t mean there are no sharks at all. In fact the Red Sea is home to many sharks species, which include oceanic whitetip sharks, hammerheads, grey reef sharks and whale sharks.

Many ask about the difference between great white sharks vs oceanic whitetip sharks. If you’d like to find out more, I’ve written this article: Oceanic Whitetip Shark vs Great White Shark: Main Differences + Any Similarities.

For a list of some of the most common sharks you’ll encounter in the Red Sea, you might like to take a read of this article, which includes videos of each shark found there: Are There Sharks in Egypt and the Red Sea?

Also, please don’t leave before you watch the video in this article! When you’ve got your answer about great white sharks in the Red Sea, you may like to watch the video on this article too. I almost don’t want to spoil the end of the video, so all I will say is it involves a carcass, many sharks and a single grouper…you may be surprised at what happens, I certainly was!

Temperature barrier for great white sharks to enter the Red Sea

There are no great white sharks in the Red Sea, as there’s a temperature barrier, which is the Arabian Sea. The average temperature of the Arabian sea is 29.5°F (85°F), and does fall below 27°C (81°F), which is above the maximum temperature a great white will tolerate, which is 24°C (75°F).

If this wasn’t the case, it is entirely possible that the Red Sea would be home to great white sharks in the cooler months, as the sea temperature can drop to 21°C (69°F).

This is similar to why great white sharks swim up to the southern point of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, as the water temperature drops in the winter months.

To find out more about great white sharks in the Great Barrier Reef, which includes a video of a large white shark that swims up to a snorkeler, please read this article: Are There Great White Sharks In The Great Barrier Reef?

But on the other hand, the reason why there are no great white sharks in the Red Sea is a similar reason why there are none in the Maldives either.

But having said that, you may like to read this article about greát white sharks in the Maldives, as a great white shark found in South Africa was pinged near to the Maldives: Are there great white sharks in the Maldives? (Is it safe to swim and dive?)

As can be seen in the above image, if a great white shark were to follow the east coast of Africa from South Africa, it would have to pass through the Arabian sea in order to get to the Red Sea.

If you’d love to scuba dive in the Red Sea, why not consider diving from a Red Sea liveaboard. You can choose a Red Sea liveaboard from the following table:

Table of liveaboard diving in the Red Sea

This list of Red Sea liveaboards is in descending customer rating order, followed by Scuba Diving Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating, see below), so the liveaboards with the highest customer rating and the best SDE lux rating will be at the top of the list. If you want to change the list order, use the “Sort by” dropdown below.

The Scuba Diving Earth Luxury Rating (SDE Lux Rating) is explained on each liveaboard review when you click the “Discover Liveaboard” link, and is my own Liveaboard Luxury Rating I’ve assigned to all liveaboards. Choosing between liveaboards is helped by customer scores, and if you get stuck choosing between two or three liveaboards, where each one has a high customer score out of 10, you can use the SDE Luxury Rating to help narrow down your choice.

Think about it like using Booking.com when searching for the best hotel. Booking.com also use a customer score where each customer rates hotels out of 10. This is similar to the liveaboard customer rating, which is also rated out of 10. But let’s say you only like to stay in hotels rated 8 and above on Booking.com, but you also want the hotel to have WIFI or parking, or to have a swimming pool etc. The features each hotel has is usually secondary to the score out of 10.

I hope you enjoyed this article about are there great white sharks in the Red Sea

I’d love to hear from you. Tell us about your adventures of diving and snorkelling. Please use the comments section below. Please also share your photos. Either from your underwater cameras or videos from your waterproof go-pro’s!

If this article hasn’t answered all of your questions. If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about are there great white sharks in the Red Sea), please comment below with your questions.

There will also be many more articles about scuba and scuba diving safety tips (and on snorkelling too) for you to read and learn about this fabulous sport.

Have fun and be safe!