Red Tide is not always red and it has nothing to do with the tide! Luckily the red tide problems we have had in this area since August last year, now seem to be disappearing. It was worst on the Fujeira side (east - by Oman) and it did hit a lot of dive sites. But recently, red tide was spotted along Jumeirah on the Dubai side and south down by Abu Dhabi.
In full and typical Dubai newspaper style - all reports claimed that it was a "minor nuisance" and that the impact had been "minimal" - no beaches were closed and it was never officially stated that swimming could be harmful. In fact, the officials specifically said that red tide was "not harmful to humans" - I love that!! Any other research on the topic shows that people may experience respiratory irritation (coughing, sneezing, and tearing) when the red tide organism is present along a coast and winds blow its toxic aerosol onshore. Skin irritation and burning is possible in areas of high concentration of red tide. Wonderful!
The recent newspaper reports are stating that 300 tonnes of fish died and a lot of the coral reefs suffered from "bleaching". That's what I call "minimal impact" alright!! However, we are happy it is leaving and we did manage to get a day dive trip in while our friends Elaine and John were here from Illinois.
While Aidan and Hunter were away on school trips, we drove across the Mussandam Peninsula and ended up in Dippa, Oman. A quick entry through border and passport control (Aric with an expired US passport which the guards didn't catch in either direction! Phew!) and we were soon on the fast dive boat headed for the sites for the day.
It may be time to invest in upgrading our dive equipment and outfits giving that it was bought when we were Padi certified in 1989! Personally I think that our 80's pink, lime and yellow accent colors on the BCD and skinsuits never go fully out of style - kind of makes you feel like an Italian on the Alpine ski slopes - "loud, blingy and really not there to ski" - and do the fish really care?? So we decided to leave the embarrasing fashion accessories at home and opted for renting the gear at the dive shop. John and Elaine of course had the latest and greatest gear diehard sports people they are! We were well jealous! Elaine's fancy wetsuit came in handy as I needed two of them to stay warm. Guess the temps aren't quite as high in the Oman waters as on our Dubai side.
We had two great dives and saw loads of different fish, eels and colorful reefs. There was a little bit of red tide but we were deep and beneath it so it did not affect us. It was truly a wonderful day. When we sailed from the first site to the coast to have lunch we passed an old raddy dow (Arabian style boat) which was drifiting with two guys on it. Our captain yelled a whole lot of things in Arabic and the guys waved and shook their heads then yelled back. When we asked what that was all about, he told us it was an Iraqi fishing boat (obviously a little out of its territory!!) which had broken down. Did they need help? The captain said "no, they just asked for cigarettes". Makes sense if you have to kill time while waiting for assistance from Iraq!
The weather was not the greatest while our friends were here but we did do a lot of fun activities; boating, diving and even helped John and Elaine get closer to their goal of completing a half Iron-man in May. John did some open water swimming and we ran around the marina so they could get conditioned for their triathlon. I'm confident they will break every record and be ready for a full Iron-man soon!
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