Throughout the past few years, the Egyptian Red Sea has established itself as THE location worldwide to meet Oceanic Whitetip Sharks under water. Their presence at various dive sites has led to unique and memorable encounters for both snorkellers and divers.

Recent reports about aggression of this shark species towards humans in the water and the unfortunate death of a snorkeler in the beginning of June 2009 in St. Johns have raised questions about potential changes in the sharks’ behaviour.

Along with reports on the sharks’ aggressive behaviour there is disconcerting evidence of both accidental and intentional baiting of this large predator, apparently even involving direct feeding from people under water. Any kind of shark feeding or baiting is illegal in the Egyptian Red Sea, in large parts because of its potential to change the sharks’ behaviour and condition them to expect food whenever liveaboards, zodiacs or humans are present.

Especially in the light of these recent events, it is crucial to gather any available information on this shark species and document their behaviour, residency patterns and migrations paths throughout the Egyptian Red Sea.

Building on a population study on Carcharhinus longimanus that was initiated in fall 2004 by Dr. Elke Bojanowski, the Longimanus Project collects photo and video footage of Oceanic Whitetip Sharks, which is then used to identify individual sharks with the help of their natural markings. Provided we get the information on where (at which dive site) and when (on which day) the photographs/videos were taken, we are then able to follow these sharks’ movements and establish basic population parameters.

The database currently includes over 500 individual sharks and is growing every day.

For more information on Oceanic Whitetip Sharks and the Longimanus Project, please visit www.longimanus.info.