If you’ve searched to scuba dive on the Red Sea Elphinstone Reef dive site, you may have seen other searches that divers make too. These include “Elphinstone reef shark attack” and “Longomanus shark attack“.
If you have, then this article will help you to understand these oceanic whitetips, and how to stay safe around these fearless sharks when scuba diving Elphinstone Reef, or one of the other Red Sea dive sites where you’re likely to see oceanic whitetip sharks.
An oceanic whitetip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) attacked a female diver and bit her arm at Elphinstone Reef where there have been a number of close encounters with longimanus sharks. The oceanic whitetips are very curious and look for openings or weaknesses and will bite if given a chance.
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. You can check the latest and best deals on Red Sea liveaboards using the following window:
The lady who was bitten by the oceanic whitetip shark was taken to hospital. She received 10-12 stiches in her arm and was okay in the end, but clearly shaken by the experience. She had been diving with Red Sea Diving Safari based in Marsa Shagra, rather than from a Red Sea Liveaboard.
Oceanic whitetip shark encounters at Elphinstone Reef dive site
In this first video the oceanic whitetips are testing the divers. If these divers were not watching, and if they were not careful, either one of these two oceanic whitetip sharks may have done a test bite. I say a test bite, as humans are not their “normal prey“, but oceanic whitetips are opportunistic feeders.
These oceanic whitetip sharks are not necessarily being aggressive with the divers, curious yes, which is what oceanic whitetip sharks are like.
Oceanic whitetip sharks are much bolder than most shark species when around scuba divers and have no fear like normal sharks, other than perhaps tiger sharks.
In this first video the pectoral fins of aren’t down, which if they were is a sign of aggression.
If one of these sharks wanted to attack, they would and fast. So please take a look at the video of an oceanic whitetip shark attacking a snorkeler below. You’ll see how fast they can move when they want to.
Shark attacks my SMB – Oceanic Whitetip at Elphinstone Red Sea
This is another example of an oceanic whitetip shark, which in this case is behaving in an erratic way around these divers. Notice how bold it is and how it comes in close to the divers. But in the end this shark attacks the divers surface marker buoy (SMB) instead.
When you see the damage the shark does to the diver’s SMB at the end of the video, imagine the damage it could do to an arm or a leg. So respect is required at all times when you dive with oceanic whitetips sharks, or any shark for that matter.
Shark attacks my SMB – Oceanic Whitetip at Elphinstone/Red Sea During a drift dive in the big blue at Elphinstone/Red Sea, a Oceanic whitetip attack and destroyed my SMB. We had a unforgettable dive in the blue with this curious and fantastic creature who wanted to taste my equipment 🙂
The next video is of another very curious oceanic whitetip shark at Elphinstone Reef, but not one of an attack again.
There’s no doubt that in this video the oceanic white tip (Carcharhinus longimanus) is looking for an opening or a weakness, which is what most sharks do. But the behaviour is not necessarily that of an aggressive shark.
If this oceanic whitetip was being aggressive it’s wing-like pectoral fins would be noticeably down, the back would be arched, the movements of the shark would be much faster and more erratic (see below).
However, having said that there’s no doubt that if the divers were not keeping their eyes on this oceanic whitetip shark, it would probably take a bite. The oceanic whitetip shark is definitely in eating mode and one of these divers is on the menu for eating (see below of a similar situation of an actual attack on a diver at The Brothers Islands).
In this article: “Brothers Shark Attack: Oceanic Whitetip Shark Attacks Diver” I show a video of when an oceanic whitetip shark does attack a scuba diver. In this same article I also explain how the shark attack could have been prevented too. I therefore recommend that before you go on your dive trip to the Red Sea and Elphinstone Reef dive site, you take note of the safety rules I give you and the easy to learn acronym to remember these four shark diving safety rules.
The behaviour of the shark at The Brothers was very much similar to the ones in the above videos. The only difference being, the shark at The Brothers found a weakness.
If you are planning a trip to dive the Brothers Islands, Elphinstone Reef dive site or even Daedalus Reef dive site, you might just want to watch the video from The Brothers. This is so you understand how important the rules are for you to follow when diving close to oceanic whitetip sharks.
Oceanic whitetip bikes snorkeler in Hawaii (i.e not Elphinstone Reef)
Although this video was not filmed on the Elphinstone Reef in the Red Sea, it does show an attack by an oceanic whitetip shark. In this oceanic whitetip shark attack it demonstrates how fast these sharks can swim if they want to, and how fast an attack can happen, when they want to attack. Notice how it was behind again, which is the same as what happened at The Brothers.
Oceanic Whitetip Shark Bites Diver An oceanic whitetip shark appears out of nowhere to attack a diver off the coast of Hawaii. From Shark Week 2016’s “Deadliest Sharks.”
Seeing that you’re interested in scuba diving with sharks, or at least interested in staying safe around sharks, you may also like to read this article about great white sharks in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. You may be surprised by what you read, I certainly was!
Oceanic Whitetip Shark Attack | Planet Earth | BBC Earth Follow the truly amazing story of one Planet Earth cameraman’s desperate search for the perfect slow motion shot of an Oceanic Whitetip Shark in South Africa’s shallow seas, just off the coast of Cape Town
I would hope that you’ve not been discouraged from scuba diving the Red Sea after reading this article and from watch the videos I’ve included. Assuming this is the case, and I sincerely hope it is, I suggest you book a Red Sea liveaboard diving safari to dive Elphinstone Reef dive site, instead of a land-based resort.
For this, you can either use this article: The Best Red Sea Liveaboard Dive Boats, or use the handy window below to search for your chosen Red Sea liveaboard. The benefit of using the article, is that I’ve included a handy table that lists all the Red Sea liveaboards. This table includes a column to confirm which Red Sea liveaboards visit Elphinstone Reef dive site, along with some other very useful information too about each liveaboard dive boat.
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.
Additionally, if you would like to find out when is the best time to see oceanic whitetip sharks at Elphinstone Reef dive site, please take a read of this article too: “Elphinstone Reef Dive Site: How To Get To The Best Diving Egypt“. In this article I include a very handy table which shows a summary from 130 reviews of divers who visited Elphinstone Reef and when most sightings of oceanic whitetip sharks occurred, as well as sightings of other sharks and manta rays.
But another Red Sea dive you may like to consider is Daedalus Reef, where oceanic whitetips sharks are seen on a regular basis. Please take a look at this article “Red Sea Daedalus Reef Dive Site: Shark Diving“. This article includes a handy table which is a summary from 148 scuba divers and when they saw most oceanic whitetip sharks, plus other sharks and manta rays.
I hope you enjoyed this page about Elphinstone reef shark attack
If you have more questions either about snorkelling or scuba diving (or specifically about Elphinstone reef shark attack), 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!
Elphinstone Reef Shark Attack: Close Up Oceanic Whitetip Shark
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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.
