The Red Sea is a colored sea, indeed a sorcerer of colors, not only at the surface level where the waters shine with wonderful turquoise purity, but also and especially under the surface of its waters, at the coral reefs that appear to the diver’s eye, behind the glass of diving goggles, as if they are colored gardens frequented by a decorated public of sea creatures in hundreds of forms and with all the colors of the rainbow.
The journey:
I promised my children when they were small a surprise they would not forget throughout their lives, and I did not reveal the surprise to them until after we boarded a beautiful boat that took us deep into the waters of the Red Sea. After 20 minutes, the boat stopped at a floating dock, and we transferred to it.
The dock:
The dock was a wide open space around the sea, which appears beautiful from all directions. In every corner of the hall, there were mummified models of Red Sea fish displayed: a predatory white shark, a giant sea serpent, a boxfish with a bony skeleton, and a balloonfish with long sharp spines protruding everywhere in its skin. The children finished looking at the fish exhibition in the hall and began to insist until I revealed the surprise to them, but the surprise revealed itself to them.
The submarine:
A yellow submarine, the color of sunflowers, began to cut the surface of the water until it settled floating next to the dock whose balconies we look from. The children gasped in astonishment, then began exchanging looks of joy in disbelief when the submarine began to bring out those who were in its heart. We moved toward it with a new group to descend to it. We flew inside the elegant submarine and took our seats in precise arrangement facing the wide, round, and transparent windows.
Sea gardens:
The submarine began to move and descend to the depths slowly. At that time, I said to the children with confidence: You will soon see the wonderful colorful sea gardens and the fish that will dazzle you with their striking colors. I had no doubt about that, for I had previously dived under the waters of the Red Sea at the coral grass.
I saw the colorful deep gardens again, but the scenes that began to appear from the submarine windows made me fall silent in wonder, asking myself in shame: Where did the colors I had seen before go?
The not-so-distant past:
A few years ago, the submarine used to roam among coral reefs very close to the window glass, and fish appeared clearly as if they could be touched. There were multi-shaped reefs, and many fish of the parrotfish type with a beak-like mouth, and others striped called police fish, and a few large Napoleon fish, all dominated by a grayish-blue color, as if dyed with the color of pale sand.
Where did the colors go:
The children began to look at me frustrated, repeating to my hearing: Where are those beautiful colors, Dad? I did not answer, because I did not possess the answer at that time. But after I asked the divers and specialists, I knew the answer. The reef area that our submarine landed at was beautiful in color when it was wild and human submarines did not approach it. After the submarine’s repeated landing to it, the bottom waters moved and began to flood the reefs, which began to dry out and lose their colors. As for the beautifully colored fish like butterfly fish and striped sea eels, they abandoned the place to another where they enjoy their freedom and true marine life.
Only some begging fish remained, accustomed to living on what a display submarine throws to them, accompanying the submarine with scraps of dead fish, so they lost their vitality and their colors faded!