{"id":616684,"date":"2026-04-20T14:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616684\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T14:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T14:42:16","slug":"it-can-be-seen-from-space-is-the-size-of-morocco-and-home-to-animals-found-nowhere-else-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/616684\/","title":{"rendered":"It can be seen from space, is the size of Morocco and home to animals found nowhere else on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today it\u2019s one of the most-visited and well-regarded diving locations anywhere in the world, but the Red Sea \u2013\u00a0that slither of a water dividing Africa from the Arabian Peninsula \u2013\u00a0is famous for so much more.<\/p>\n

\"\"Michele D’Amico supersky77 \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

For example, there\u2019s the famous parting of the Red Sea in\u00a0Exodus\u00a0and then there\u2019s the oddity of its name \u2013\u00a0because, let\u2019s be honest, there\u2019s nothing red about the Red Sea. (Or is there? More on that later.)<\/p>\n

Starting with the wildlife, the Red Sea is renowned as a highly productive ecosystem<\/a>, with hundreds of kms of coral reefs<\/a> supporting a varied diversity of species including sharks, turtles<\/a> and those strangest of marine mammals, dugongs.<\/p>\n

Almost entirely herbivorous, dugongs <\/a>feed largely on seagrass<\/a> which they consume in enormous quantities. The name dugong comes from the word\u00a0duyun\u00a0and may or may not (depending on who you believe) mean \u2018sea lady\u2019 or even \u2018mermaid\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These gentle ocean giants can weigh up to 1,000kg (that\u2019s extreme \u2013\u00a0most are typically closer to 250kg) and they are close relatives of the three manatee<\/a> species found on the Eastern seaboard of the Americas and in the Amazon. Dugongs, by contrast, are found from the Red Sea as far east as New Caledonia and Vanuatu.<\/p>\n

Sharks are common in the Red Sea, and a major lure for divers, and species include hammerhead, tiger<\/a> and thresher sharks<\/a>. It\u2019s been estimated that a single shark is worth US$120,000 a year in tourist revenue.<\/p>\n

But the Red Sea is a major shipping route, because the Suez Canal begins at its northern end. Scientists say an estimated one million barrels of oil are transported through it every day, leading to a permanent threat of potentially catastrophic spills.<\/p>\n

\"\"rbkomar \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Pollution incidents do happen, with the most recent one in 2024. Fertiliser, herbicidal and other chemical run off from the land can also damage coral reef and other habitats.<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s return to what the Red Sea is most famous for \u2013\u00a0the parting which allowed the Israelites to escape from the pursuing Egyptians. You might want to believe that God had a hand in this, or the work of a scientist who concluded that, firstly, this famous episode took place in a\u00a0\u00a0location called the Lake of Tanis in the eastern Nile Delta and that, secondly, it would be possible for very strong winds to effectively blow water from one area to another and thus dry it out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And the name? Well, scientists can\u2019t agree. It either refers to seasonal blooms of a red-coloured algae called\u00a0Trichodesmium\u00a0or it\u2019s got nothing to do with the colour red at all \u2013 instead, Asiatic languages often use colours to refer to the cardinal points, and the Red Sea simply means South Sea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today it\u2019s one of the most-visited and well-regarded diving locations anywhere in the world, but the Red Sea…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[49,48,66],"class_list":["post-616684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}