As chief diver on Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso, Dominique Sumian had the opportunity to dive many of the world’s finest reefs, long before they’d been “opened up” to recreational diving. After twenty-three years with the world’s best-known and most beloved underwater adventurer, the place that stays with Dominique is Sha’ab Rumi, in the Red Sea off Sudan. “Shortly before my time with him, Jacques Cousteau did an experiment at Sha’ab Rumi—ConShelf II. I went back to the site at Sha’ab Rumi with Captain Cousteau three years later. I was struck by the density of the life there, and the clarity of the water. I dove along the wall that’s near where the habitats were positioned, and the forests of coral were incredibly striking. There were many sharks present as well, including very large tiger sharks. I went back eleven years later with Philippe Cousteau, and it was exactly as beautiful as it was in 1967.”
European divers have long understood the allure of the Red Sea, a body of water that offers a true tropical experience less than a day’s plane ride away. Connected to the Arabian Sea and in turn the Indian Ocean (via the Gulf of Aden), the Red Sea stretches 1,200 miles, from the Sinai in the north to the small African nation of Djibouti in the south. It borders Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea to the west, Saudi Arabia and Yemen to the east, and is 190 miles wide at its broadest point. The Red Sea is quite deep, reaching more than 8,000 feet in some places, but also boasts extensive coral reefs along its coastline. Thanks to the richness of its soft and hard corals and abundance of pelagic life—especially sharks—many Red Sea aficionados believe that the waters off Sudan provide the best dive opportunities. And along the 500 miles of coastal waters along this war-besieged nation, Sha’ab Rumi, twenty-five miles north of Port Sudan, is the best-known destination.
Sha’ab Rumi’s notoriety comes in large part from the popularity of Le Monde sans Soleil (World Without Sun), Jacques Cousteau’s second documentary film, and his second to win an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (1964). The film project grew out of Cousteau’s desire to probe the possibilities of divers spending extended periods of time underwater. To Cousteau, having divers live underwater was the logical extension of the concept of saturation diving, put forth by a US Navy physiologist named George Bond—if a diver’s body was saturated with nitrogen, the time necessary for decompression was already maximized. Hypothetically, this would allow the diver to stay below indefinitely so long as he was provided with enough air, food, etc.—and if the diver was able to maintain his sanity. In 1962, Cousteau and his team established Continental Shelf Station No. 1 (ConShelf I) in the Mediterranean Sea, at Pomègues. Here, two divers (Albert Falco and Claude Wesley) spent a week under water without major incident. Phase one completed, Cousteau began planning for ConShelf II. A site was selected—Sha’ab Rumi—thanks in part to its water clarity, abundance of sea life, and robust coral formations. This time around, five divers would spend a month below the surface. Their little village, at a depth of thirty-five feet, consisted of four main buildings and eight ancillary structures; the main building was dubbed Starfish House, and was complete with air conditioning and freshly cooked meals. (Additionally, two divers would spend a week at a depth of eighty-five feet.) Again, everything proceeded swimmingly. Among other things, Team Cousteau learned that in their oxygen-saturated environment, cuts healed much faster, and beards grew much slower.
The world learned that the reefs of Sha’ab Rumi were singularly beautiful. The Sha’ab Rumi site is divided up into several sectors—East and South. Sha’ab Rumi East is a ledge plateau and the actual site of the ConShelf II village. The shadows that are visible from the surface materialize into several structures, including the hangar for the team’s two-man submarine and one of the shark cages that once formed a ring around the periphery of the village. Opportunities to brush against history aside, the eastern section of the reef is memorable for its stunning coral formations, a blend of hard and soft specimens in a dizzying variety of shapes and colors. Sha’ab Rumi South is equally venerated. It features a mini wall, with steep drop-offs to the east and west. The reef is festooned with a profusion of coral, providing a primer to the nearly 200 species that call the Red Sea home. Thanks to the steep drop-offs, many pelagics are drawn to the vicinity, including pick-handle barracuda, jacks, grouper, and humphead parrotfish; sometimes male parrots can be heard bumping heads. As the abandoned cages attest, Sha’ab Rumi South also draws a number of sharks, with gray reef, silver-tips, black-tips, and silky sharks being the most regular visitors. In the winter months, the reef can be one of the best spots in the Red Sea to come upon scalloped hammerheads.
DOMINIQUE SUMIAN was a critical participant in many Cousteau expeditions. Originally a commando marine and frogman in the French navy, he was dispatched to the French Oceanographic Service (COF) as chief diver and second captain on the SS Espadon, where he first served with Jacques Cousteau. Later the chief diver on the Calypso, Dominique researched and filmed in the Red Sea and in the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. Among the films he worked on were Emmy-winners The Sharks and Life and Death of the Coral Sea, and award-winners In Search of the Deep, The Whales, and The Unexpected Voyage of Pepito and Christobal. He also worked with Philippe Cousteau as right-hand man and chief diver on many filming expeditions. In the intervening years, Dominique has created companies and managed others, with particular expertise in public relations and export and production management. He currently works for Aqualung, and serves on the board of directors of Earth Echo International.
Getting There: Port Sudan, jumping-off point for Sudanese Red Sea expeditions, is generally reached from the west via Cairo, Egypt, with service from Sudan Airways (www.sudanair.com). Cairo is served by many major carriers.
Best Time to Visit: Most live-aboards operate from October through June; the summers here can be unbearably hot for many (and unlike the ConShelf II team, you can’t stay underwater the entirety of your visit).
Accommodations: Sudanese diving (at Sha’ab Rumi and anywhere else) is conducted from live-aboards. Bookings for the dozen or so ships that operate here can be made through travel operators such as Tony Blackhurst Scuba (+44 14-8327-1765; www.scuba.co.uk) and Diving World (+44 20-7407-0019; www.divingworld.co.uk).