If you are planning a scuba diving trip to the Red Sea, Egypt, you might be wondering if there are any sharks in Egypt.
There are many sharks in the Red Sea, Egypt. These include the grey reef shark, oceanic whitetip shark, scalloped hammerhead shark, whale shark, whitetip reef shark, thresher shark, tiger shark, silvertip reef shark, zebra shark (leopard shark), blacktip reef shark, great hammerhead shark, short fin mako shark, silky shark and tawny nurse shark.
The best way to dive the Red Sea, and especially the best and more remote locations in the Red Sea where you are more likely to see sharks, is by a scuba diving liveaboard. You can check the latest and best deals on Red Sea liveaboards using the following window:
The following article includes at least one video of each of the sharks encountered in the Red Sea, Egypt, as per the following list of sharks:
Grey reef sharks.
Oceanic whitetip sharks.
Scalloped hammerhead sharks.
Whale sharks.
Whitetip reef sharks.
Thresher sharks.
Tiger sharks.
Silvertip reef sharks.
Zebra sharks/leopard sharks.
Blacktip reef sharks.
Great hammerhead sharks.
Short fin mako sharks.
Silky sharks.
Tawny nurse sharks.
Either before or after reading about sharks in Egypt, you might like to take a look at Egypt liveaboards in the following table:
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.
Red Sea grey reef sharks
One of the sharks you can see in Egypt in the Red Sea are grey reef sharks. The following video is of some grey reef sharks a Little Brother in the Red Sea.
The following video is of a grey reef shark swimming out into the blue, which just goes to show you need to keep an eye on the blue water around you if you want to see sharks.
The oceanic whitetip shark (Longimanus) is quite commonly seen if you dive on the Brothers, Daedalus Reef or at Elphinstone Reef. The oceanic whitetip shark is very noticeable as it has a rounded dorsal fin and rounded pectoral fins.
Longimanus shark. Oceanic whitetip shark in Red Sea
The following video includes footage of oceanic whitetip sharks diving from the Red Sea Aggressor. That’s not to mention the manta ray, the scalloped hammerheads. The oceanic whitetip shark is at around 2 minutes into the video.
You have to be careful with oceanic whitetip sharks as they can be aggressive towards divers, as can be seen on the following video. Also, you might want to take a read of the following article before you go diving in the Red Sea, to make sure you are prepared for diving with oceanic whitetips sharks (Longimanus).
If you’re like me as a scuba diver, you’ll love hammerhead sharks. The strange but amazing looking sharks can often be found a Daedalus Reef in the Red Sea, as per the next video.
Diving with Hammerhead sharks & more @ Brothers & Daedalus – Red Sea 2014
One more great video of diving with hammerhead sharks at Daedalus Reef in the Red Sea. If you want to jump ahead to the hammerhead, this starts at around 5:25. These encounters with hammerhead sharks, mantas, dolphins, napoleons and turtles during Diving Safari on the MY Longimanus liveaboard.
The magnificent whale shark is such an amazing sight for any diver. And this largest of all sharks can be found in the Red Sea. The following video is of a whale shark found off from Hurghada.
You will never believe what whale shark did@Red Sea#Hurghada
Red Sea whitetip reef sharks
The whitetip reef shark has a distinctive white tip on its dorsal fin and the top of its tail fin, hence the name. A whitetip reef shark can be seen in the following Red Sea video on Gordon Reef.
RED SEA – DIVING – WHITETIP REEF SHARK – GORDON REEF – FULL HD
Here’s another video of a whitetip reef shark resting under an overhang, which is quite common for this species of shark, which doesn’t have to swim constantly like other sharks.
If you are very luck, you may get to see a thresher shark when you dive the Red Sea. The other sharks seen in this video include a silvertip shark, schooling scalloped hammerhead sharks and oceanic whitetip sharks too.
Tiger sharks are found in the Red Sea, but you will be extremely lucky if you see one. Tiger sharks are very large creatures, and are also very curious around scuba divers, as can be seen in the next video. This tiger shark was encountered at Rocky Island in the Red Sea.
https://youtu.be/oyUFr8_6G2k
Tiger shark circling me and my divebuddy Rocky Island, Red Sea, Egypt 17/10-2015
But how about this video where a oceanic whitetip shark (Longimanus) meets a tiger shark at Rocky Island, Red Sea. For me it’s a privilege to see either of these sharks in the Red Sea, but to see both on the same dive is amazing.
Longimanus meets tiger shark Rocky Island, Red Sea, Egypt 17/10-2015 (full unedited version)
Red Sea silvertip reef sharks
Silvertip reef sharks are sometimes mistakenly called whitetip reef sharks (as per the video below), but there is a distinct difference between these two Red Sea sharks.
The silvertip reef shark has a white edge (or silver tip) to the back of its dorsal fin, whereas the top of the dorsal fin of whitetip reef shark is white, as if it was dipped in a tin of white paint. If you want to clarify this, take another look at the section on the whitetip reef shark above, and especially watch the second video of the whitetip reef shark under an overhang.
The following video shows you a silvertip reef shark, but the video name is that it is a whitetip reef shark, which it isn’t.
https://youtu.be/n0fOMJ-In4s
Red Sea 2006 – Whitetip Reef Shark – but this is actually a silvertip reef shark
For absolute clarity, here’s another video showing a whitetip reef shark.
If you are really luck when you scuba dive in the Red Sea, you might see a zebra shark. The following video is of a zebra shark in the Tiran Straits, Sharm el Sheikh, Red Sea.
Some people call the zebra shark a leopard shark, as the adult zebra shark does look more like a leopard than a zebra. But a juvenile zebra shark does look more like a zebra.
Zebra Shark in Tiran Straits, Sharm el Sheikh, Red Sea
A leopard shark or better known as a zebra shark in the Red Sea. The caption of the following video uses the term “scary”, but a zebra shark is not scary at all, as they are much more like nurse sharks and don’t have teeth like other sharks.
Leopard shark really close to divers in the Red Sea… SCARY!
Red Sea blacktip reef sharks
The Red Sea also has blacktip reef sharks, which have the tell-tale black tip on their dorsal fin, as can be seen in the following video. The following blacktip reef shark was spotted on Marsa Shagra, House Reef in the Red Sea.
Black Tip Reef Shark – 3rd of April 2014 – RSDS Marsa Shagra, House Reef
Red Sea great hammerhead sharks
The great hammerhead shark is different from the scalloped hammerhead see above. The great hammerhead shark is solitary vs the scalloped hammerhead which swims in schools. The great hammerhead is also a much larger creature than the scalloped hammerhead.
Both hammerheads are found in the Red Sea, and the following video is of a great hammerhead shark at Jackson Reef in the Red Sea.
You may be lucky to see a silky shark when diving in the Red Sea, Egypt. The following video at Daedalus Reef, these divers were luck to see a silky shark.
The Red Sea also has the tawny nurse shark, which is more likely to be spotted on a night dive. During the day you are more likely to see them lying on a sandy bottom or huddled together in a cave or under a crevice.
One final video of sharks of the Red Sea. In this video you’ll see grey reef sharks, hammerhead sharks, silvertip reef sharks and whitetip reef sharks. towards about 2 minutes in on a night dive in the Red Sea, there’s a feeding frenzy of whitetip reef sharks too.
Shark Dive in the Red Sea #sharks #sharkdive #diving #divingwithsharks
I hope you enjoyed this page about are there sharks in Egypt and the Red Sea
If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about are there sharks in Egypt and the Red Sea), please comment below with your questions.
Please share your experiences, plus dive sites, resorts and liveaboards you recommend. Share the time of year of your trip together with what you saw, the visibility, currents and dive operator, as this will help others who read this page.
There will also be many more pages and 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!
Are There Sharks in Egypt and the Red Sea?
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Article written by Russell Bowyer who has been a scuba diver since diving on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia in 1989. After his first dive he trained as a BSAC diver in the UK. He attained his Diver Leader certification with BSAC. He then went on to become a scuba diving instructor, teaching others how to dive and was voted as Diving Officer and Treasurer for the Saffron Walden BSAC club too. Russell has dived all over the world, including the UK, on liveaboards in the Red Sea, the Caribbean, South Africa and the USA. Russell is experienced in all dive types, including drift diving, deep dives that involved decompression stops and recreational dives too.
