Recreational freedivers KSA Red Sea?

[simonhc]

Hi all

Any recreational freedivers in Jeddah or Yanbu out there in Saudi Arabia? My two freediving buddies just left the country. Not interested in spearfishing but am more than happy to train with any spearfishers out there. I freedive out of the Sheraton private reef every weekend but am interested in going further afield too, especially if it'd mean not having to worry about jetskis when surfacing! Currently trying to convince a few Italian ex-spearfishermen who work here to take up freediving again, but it's going to take bit of doing..

Simon

(Bon voyage, Justin! Torna presto, Luca!)

[wet]

Hi Simon, sorry I'm just a poor Californian, unable to join your adventures, hope you find some good diving buddies.

I recently heard of a massive mangrove replanting effort going on, to establish new reefs on the western and/or southern side of the Red Sea, not sure where though. I read that the mangroves require some fresh water, but by adding Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Iron (rare in the Red Sea) to the seedling root soil, they grow well with only minimal freshwater. Have you heard of this happening? Are there mangrove forests on the SA coast or Yemen, or is it bare sand and rock all along the shore? Just curious...

DDeden

[TheFatKid]

Hello,
I am a freedive spearfisherman who would very much like t train with a serious freediver unfortunately i am on my way to ras tanura on the gulfside but I hope to get to jeddah often. send me your contact details and I will get in touch as soon as I get set up, (im actually in the airport on my way over)

[DOLPHIN 77]

Hi guys :
any one interested to acompanien me during spearfishig tomorrow Jeddah ? if not a spearfisher you may come and watch only

[adolphin]

Originally Posted by wet

Hi Simon, sorry I'm just a poor Californian, unable to join your adventures, hope you find some good diving buddies.

I recently heard of a massive mangrove replanting effort going on, to establish new reefs on the western and/or southern side of the Red Sea, not sure where though. I read that the mangroves require some fresh water, but by adding Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Iron (rare in the Red Sea) to the seedling root soil, they grow well with only minimal freshwater. Have you heard of this happening? Are there mangrove forests on the SA coast or Yemen, or is it bare sand and rock all along the shore? Just curious...

DDeden

Hi wet, there are massive mangrove areas here in United Arab Emirates, specially Abu Dhabi .. just beside my home .. .. here it grows solely on sea water ! I didn't know it needs any fresh water !!

[wet]

Originally Posted by adolphin

Hi wet, there are massive mangrove areas here in United Arab Emirates, specially Abu Dhabi .. just beside my home .. .. here it grows solely on sea water ! I didn't know it needs any fresh water !!

Thanks Adolphin, I didn't know about that. I know that some kinds of mangroves can live in very salty water, and others in brackish water, and others in freshwater that gets a little saltwater only during high tide. Also, maybe there is a little freshwater seepage under the soil that leaks to the shore, at least that happens at lots of sea coasts, just a little is enough for mangroves I think. Does the UAE get annual rainy monsoon like India or is it mostly dry all year?
DDeden

[adolphin]

Wet, during the old days (14 years back and earlier years) it used to rain alot (well alot here in the Arabia means say .. raining for 7 -10 days nonstop and repeating it twice or trice at intervals during winter usually- I don't recall how many centemeters and all) .. but for the past 14 years it was really dry, talking about Abu Dhabi in particular where the biggest mangarove areas exist in UAE (rains for few minutes, one day a year, if any at all!), now thank God the past two years things have changed back to normal gradually with this year raining quite good (not yet the old days though) .. still the mangaroves are quite healthy and booming (during the dry years too), so I guess it's the high salty ones, except if the raining behaviour changed gradually over years without notice and the plants got adapted to the high salinity concentrations.
Mangaroves was our playing yard when we were young (our team of young kids .. ) .. it was an every day activity to walk through the mangaroves in the low tide, then exit before it got high again, in winter it gets realy busy (different kinds of birds nesting) .. I am still connected strongly by my heart to mangaroves ..

[wet]

That's great, some rain is coming back. I guess that means the monsoon swings further north some times, further south sometimes. Here at the wet North Calif. coast, every winter it rains a lot, but this winter we had 2 months no rain, very unusual and nice to walk in the sunshine, but I'm glad it's raining again, since we don't get any rain during summer. The big redwood trees need lots of rain to grow.

I guess mangroves can't live in cold coasts, maybe vulnerable to frost.

I walked through the mangroves in Malaysia, hard to walk since there are so many roots sticking up. The little mudskippers and crabs were a lot faster than I was.

Are there any crocodiles or big sharks in the area around UAE?

DDeden

[adolphin]

Oh yes! we needed that rain .. oh we surely did ! .. although we have huge water distillers which tranform sea water into fresh drinking water and distripute it through out the country (lots of water here no problem), but it's dead, no life in it .. I can't descripe it wet, but last spring, just one day before it rains (rain came late last year) our garden (at home) was really dull, all green but so dull, then it rained for two days, and infront of my eyes, the berry tree which had no berries in two days is heavily loaded with it, loooong ones, all same size, all green, which suggests that it boomed out all of the sudden (otherwise we should see different sizes and defferent stages of growth as usualy the case!) .. then I looked at the rest of the garden, it's all live, you feel that some of it is laughing, others are taking a very comfortable and peaceful nap, while some are working it out !! .. amazing, no comparision between dead distilled water and rain !!

I guess mangroves can't live in cold coasts, maybe vulnerable to frost.

I guess so, it is a more warmth kinda plants.

I walked through the mangroves in Malaysia, hard to walk since there are so many roots sticking up. The little mudskippers and crabs were a lot faster than I was.

I bet it was fun wet ! .. once when young, we went quite deep into the mangroves while it was low tide, we forgot ourselves, and one of us noticed that the high tide is coming! (because of the different levels of the soil you can't feel it if you were standing at a relatively high point unless you notice the edges) so it was the big race out of the mangroves! .. .. man that was thrilling, one of us stepped onto soft mud and he was stuck and started to dip into it so fast ! I pulled himfrom his hands then another kid helped and he was out but lost one of his shoes and wanted to get it back !!! I shouted at him: shoe ?!! thank God you are not with it down there, lets runnnnnn ! .. and finally we made it through that maze of mangroves with least loss .. one pair of shoes and muds all over our clothes .. .. I loved that experience, all of us did, yes even the one who lost his shoe and got a good lecture back from his mother .. the thing is that we were all thinking that we could get banned from going back there if they would know what realy made him lose his shoe !! .. anyway it was a one life mistake you know .. we were all experiensed .. ..

Are there any crocodiles or big sharks in the area around UAE?

Crocodiles not realy (not naturaly at least) .. but big sharks ? ofcourse, all kinds except whites and baskin, I didn't hear of any sight seeing here in UAE .. look at this thread:

http://forums.deeperblue.net/general...ht=whale+shark

Although their numbers lessened quite below normal because of uncontroled hunting through out the past 30 years ! .. but still you can spot them from time to time if you were lucky, I'm talking about sharks in general, not whale sharks!

[wet]

Well it sounds like a lively garden, after the rains came.

Here in Calif., I walked around Humboldt Bay, during low tide, one foot sank way down into a spring, I almost lost my shoe too! Luckily only mud sharks around, the great white sharks stay outside the Bay. The mosquitos really liked me though, I think hundreds got fed that night when I slept.

The water is too cold for me to dive, and I don't have equipment so I just enjoy it from the surface for now. I see sea otters backfloating, harbor seals fishing and sea lions barking, and a big bat ray too.

DDeden