A submerging bottle nose dolphin in the Red Sea off the coast of Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt

A Bottle nose dolphin, with the body of the dolphin almost fully submerged. The only part of the dolphin visible above water was the fin of the dolphin, which had not yet gone below water. This was one of the dolphins that were part of a small pod of dolphins (not sure about the size of the pod since we could see only 3 dolphins at the max at any point of time). This was off the shore of the tourist town of Sharm el Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula in Egypt. Control of the town has tossed between Egypt and Israel twice over the past 60 years, but now is fully under control of Egypt. Over the past 40 years, there has been a concerted effort to promote tourism in Sharm, especially related to the waters of the Red Sea along with the incredible coral formations in the region that attract snorkeling and scuba diving. While on the way to the coral formations, we came across this pod of Dolphins, providing a fascinating beginning to the trip. It was not only us, in front of us, there was another ship that had spotted this pod, and our ship and many other ships behind us all started circling the pod of dolphins until they tired of all the attraction and dived under the water.

Sharm El Sheikh (New Millennium Collection: North Africa)	View Larger Map