I was 19 and saw the film “The living Sea” in 1966 about Jacques Costaeus underwater habitat at Shaab Rumi in Sudan. And I was hooked. 25 years later I was there. I was sitting by myself at the lower reefedge 30 meters deep, crystal clear water and a wonderland of soft and hard corals. Below me it was 700 meter deep and I was wondering which unknown monsters was hiding out there in the blue waterspace. Suddenly I saw how the water in front of me got darker. It was like as if a cloud had hidden the sun. I looked up and saw a school of 3 meter big hammerheads came towards me. I counted to more than fifty. They slowly glided over me. Their perfectly streamlined bodies, shining like steel, just did not fit togetherwith their strangely shaped heads. It made them look like monsters from a long gone era. They ignored me and disappeared in the haze. My film was too slow and I never got any good pictures. But in my brain is engraved one of the most fascinating sights during 30 years of diving.

Shaab Rumi is a coral tower high above the Red Sea floor. On top is an atoll with a ringreef ideal for anchorage. It lies 25 nautical miles north of Port Sudan reachable with a liveabord boat from Port Sudan or southern Egypt. Shaab Rumi has become known as a place where divers can study sharks at close range. Costeaus shark cages are still there and so is the hangar for his underwater saucer. To see this perfect creature, unchanged for 70 million years, slowly glide through the water in perfect harmony with his element, is an artistic experience. To study them in their own element and experience their incredibly efficient senses at work makes me eager to learn more about them. We had anchored in the lagoon and used the inflatable to go to the south point where we knew the sharks would be. Apparently these sharks over the years have been conditioned to react at just the sound of the presence of divers and they turned up immediately on our presence and started swimming back and forth in front of us There were about twenty of them, mostly Gray Reef Sharks. There were also some big Silver Tip Sharks with pilotfish swimming in front of them. I witnessed one shark being cleaned by a cleanerfish. The shark gave a signal by suddenly stopping and put his body almost vertical with his mouth wide open. A cleanerfish came up to him and eagerly started to clean his teeth. swimming in and out of his mouth.

Erik Bjurström is one of Scandinavias foremost underwater photographers. He has been publishing about diving for 20 years around the world. His photography has taken many prestigious awards in international competitions.

Today he is busy documenting the fabiolous deep wrecks in the Baltic with technical diving. In the sparetime he plays his blues guitar.