My mother and daughter and I stayed in DAHAB for several days and love the atmosphere and food and snorkeling. We were planning on staying for 3 weeks until on the 3rd day we were accosted on the beach by a tall, bald, older man named Douglas from the UK. Every time he saw us on the beach with our snorkel stuff he would and rave about the coral and sea turtles. He accused my mother who is 84 of destroying the corals with her snorkeling and told us we were filling the water with bacteria by even swimming in it thus poisoning the sea turtles. We were able to escape him only when we went to the blue hole. We decided to stay in Sharm to avoid the man who stays in camp by the light house snorkeling area but really miss the laid back atmosphere of Dahab.
I have been in Dahab 4 months now and not come across this man. Shame you did not try a different area of Dahab eg Mashraba/Laguna
So - did this Douglas upset you by reminding you that you're destroying the ecology for your own selfish pleasure?
Or were you not concerned about that, only about the fact that he was hectoring/annoying?
If the first, then I'd have thanked him politely for the information and removed myself.
If the second - then why not be equally odious back? There's nothing that says you have to be polite to someone who has no concern for you. And from the age of your mother, I'd say you were old enough to look out for yourself.
Sea turtles can live for a hundred years or more, I would have imagined they'd be tough enough to withstand a little bacteria (in open seas) emitted by people snorkeling. Unless of course one of those huge ocean liners puled up and 5,000 people went snorkeling simultaneously.
Anyway, I would have told him I was a Marine Biologist and gathering information for a turtle sanctuary that was planned for the area.
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