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Abu Dabab I
Egypt · reef · intermediate
3–25 mintermediateOWboat entry
Abu Dabab I
Reef one of the Abu Dabbab chain: a coral garden on sand with a shallow canyon, and the one of the group operators sell least.
Max depth3–25 m
Required levelintermediate
Entry typeboat
Visibilitynot sourced
The dive
Abu Dabab I is Shaab Abu Dabbab 1, the reef the fishermen's numbering calls Wahid. It is one of a chain of offshore reefs lying about 4 to 6 km off the coast between Port Ghalib and Marsa Alam, roughly 30 km north of Marsa Alam town, and it is reached by speedboat. Dive The World counts six reefs in the formation and is clear about which ones get dived: Ithnain and Thalata, reefs two and three, are the two most eastern of the three reefs at Abu Dabbab North and the ones operators actually sell. Wahid is the western one of that trio and the odd one out. SeaHorse Diving Club lists it as a site that is not included in its standard dive package, which is the practical version of the same fact.
This is not the Marsa Abu Dabab bay with the dugongs. Divezone describes that as a shore-entry sandy bay 0 to 10 m deep with no current, two resident dugongs and green turtles in the seagrass. That is a different site several kilometres inshore. Out here there is no beach, nothing to snorkel back to, and SeaHorse marks snorkelling as not available.
The dive itself is a coral head ringed by a large coral garden standing on a sand bottom between 9 and 18 m, with a few pinnacles on it. Both operator records single out the same feature: a shallow canyon, or cave, cut into the reef that you can swim into. Dive Club Marsa Alam adds that the site works well for macro. SeaHorse classifies the dive as shallow reef, cavern and drift, gives the range as 3 to 25 m and rates it easy to medium for all levels; Dive Club Marsa Alam gives 3 to 18 m. Dive The World says the formation as a whole does not reach great depth, 18 to 20 m maximum, so the working profile is the coral garden, not the sand below it.
One thing worth knowing about the pins. Dive The World says the fishermen numbered the reefs from north to south, but our catalogue positions for reefs one, two and three do not line up that way, and there are duplicate imported pins for the same reefs within a couple of hundred metres of each other. Treat the coordinates for any individual reef in this chain as approximate and let the boat crew tell you which one you are on.
- A coral garden on white sand between 9 and 18 m, ringing the reef
- A shallow canyon or cave cut into the reef that you can swim into
- A few pinnacles standing off the main reef
- Named as good macro ground by one of the two operators who record the site
- Turtles, barracuda and whitetip reef sharks reported here alongside the reef fish
- The least-sold of the three reefs at Abu Dabbab North, so usually quieter than reefs 2 and 3
Please note before you go
- Offshore reef with no shore to swim to; the speedboat is the only surface support
- The canyon cut into the reef is an overhead environment, however short
- Speedboat and day-boat traffic over a shallow reef
- Drift is one of the listed dive types, so the pickup point may not be the drop point
Access & rules
Mandatory requirementsGetting there
Speedboat, from Marsa Alam or Port Ghalib. SeaHorse Diving Club runs it as a half-day trip of two guided dives and states that this site is not part of its standard dive package, so it is booked and priced separately. Dive Club Marsa Alam also lists it as a boat site, about 30 km north of Marsa Alam.
Operator
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Season
Nothing about this reef is seasonal; the answer is the Egyptian Red Sea answer. Emperor Divers gives water at about 22 C in winter and up to 30 C in summer, with visibility often above 30 m in spring, and names September to November as the stretch many divers rate the best of the year. Spring and autumn are the middle ground: warm enough water, no summer heat, no winter wind on a boat that has to run 4 to 6 km offshore.
Conditions
Visibilitynot sourced
Currentmoderate
Surgenot sourced
WaterSalt water
Depth range3–25 m
Environmentreef
Coralnot sourced
Crowdsquiet
A single reef with a few pinnacles, ringed by a coral garden on a sand bottom at 9 to 18 m, and one shallow canyon cut into it. Current is described as low to medium. Depths given for the site range from 18 to 25 m depending on the source, and Dive The World says the whole Abu Dabbab formation is shallow, 18 to 20 m at most. No visibility figure exists for this reef alone in the sources we read.
On current: SeaHorse Diving Club rates the current low to medium and lists drift among the dive types, so expect flow but not a running drift every day. Depth is where the sources part company: SeaHorse gives the site as 3 to 25 m, Dive Club Marsa Alam gives 3 to 18 m, and Dive The World says the whole formation tops out at 18 to 20 m. We have taken the widest band so nobody plans shallow and finds themselves deeper, but the dive people actually describe happens between 9 and 18 m in the coral garden. No source we read gives a visibility figure for this individual reef; a dive directory quotes 25 to 40 m for the reef complex as a whole and we have not adopted it.
Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov
Questions & answers
How deep is Abu Dabab I?
Shallow. SeaHorse Diving Club gives the site as 3 to 25 m and Dive Club Marsa Alam gives 3 to 18 m, while Dive The World says the whole Abu Dabbab formation tops out at 18 to 20 m. The part of the dive people actually describe is the coral garden on sand between 9 and 18 m, so plan for a shallow profile with the deeper end available if the guide takes you there.
Are there dugongs at Abu Dabab I?
No, and this is the most common mix-up at this name. The dugongs live in Marsa Abu Dabbab, the shoreline bay several kilometres inshore, which Divezone describes as a shore-entry sandy bay 0 to 10 m deep with no current, two resident dugongs and green turtles grazing the seagrass. Abu Dabab I is an offshore hard-coral reef reached by speedboat, with no seagrass meadow and no dugongs recorded on it.
What is the difference between Abu Dabab I, II and III?
They are three separate reefs in the same offshore chain, which fishermen numbered and which carry the Arabic ordinals Wahid, Ithnain and Thalata. Dive The World says Ithnain and Thalata, reefs two and three, are the two most eastern of the group and the ones operators sell, often as a single boat dive, and that pair is also where the caverns and the Heaven I wreck are. Reef one, this site, is the western and least-dived of the three and has its own shallow canyon instead.
How do I get to Abu Dabab I?
By speedboat, from Marsa Alam or Port Ghalib. Dive The World puts the formation about 4 km off the mainland, 10 nautical miles south of Port Ghalib and 15 north of Marsa Alam; Dive Club Marsa Alam gives roughly 30 km north of Marsa Alam town. SeaHorse Diving Club sells it as a half-day trip of two guided dives and notes that it is not part of the standard dive package, so it has to be booked separately.
Can I snorkel Abu Dabab I?
No. SeaHorse Diving Club lists snorkelling as not available here. It is an offshore reef with no beach and no shallow lagoon, the coral garden that makes the dive sits between 9 and 18 m, and your only surface support is the speedboat. Snorkellers should go to Marsa Abu Dabbab bay instead, which is a shore site and a different place.
Is there current at Abu Dabab I?
SeaHorse Diving Club rates the current low to medium and lists drift as one of the dive types, so plan for flow rather than still water. Nothing in the sources describes it as strong at this particular reef. As with the rest of the chain, the boat checks the water before dropping you and the group runs with whatever it is doing that hour.
What will I see at Abu Dabab I?
Both operator records list the same mix: reef fish including butterflyfish, goatfish, glassfish and scorpionfish, plus turtles, barracuda and whitetip reef sharks. One of them calls the site good macro ground, which fits a coral garden on sand. Records from the reefs around this pin also include twoband anemonefish, blue-spotted ribbontail rays, giant moray, titan triggerfish and giant clams.
Is the Heaven I wreck at this reef?
No. Dive The World and the operator records put the Heaven I, a dive boat that burned and sank in the mid 2000s, in the channel between reefs two and three at about 13 m. It is normally tacked onto a reef 2 or reef 3 dive. There is no wreck at reef one.
Life recorded at Abu Dabab I
60 species within 1.5 km · OBISTaeniura lymmaoccasional · 8 recordsGymnothorax javanicusoccasional · 6 recordsBalistoides viridescensoccasional · 6 recordsTriaenodon obesusrare · 4 records
Amphiprion bicinctusoccasional · 19 records
Scarus ferrugineusoccasional · 16 records
All 60 species recorded in this area
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Amphiprion bicinctus | occasional | 19 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | occasional | 16 |
| Monotaxis grandoculis | occasional | 15 |
| Scarus niger | occasional | 14 |
| Lutjanus ehrenbergii | occasional | 12 |
| Tridacna maxima | occasional | 12 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | occasional | 12 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | occasional | 12 |
| Ctenochaetus striatus | occasional | 12 |
| Mulloidichthys vanicolensis | occasional | 12 |
| Arothron diadematus | occasional | 11 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | occasional | 11 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | occasional | 11 |
| Priacanthus hamrur | occasional | 11 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | occasional | 11 |
| Hipposcarus harid | occasional | 10 |
| Naso elegans | occasional | 10 |
| Heniochus intermedius | occasional | 10 |
| Chromis viridis | occasional | 10 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | occasional | 9 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | occasional | 9 |
| Parupeneus cyclostomus | occasional | 9 |
| Cephalopholis argus | occasional | 9 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | occasional | 8 |
| Parapercis hexophtalma | occasional | 8 |
| Taeniura lymma | occasional | 8 |
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | occasional | 8 |
| Oxycheilinus digramma | occasional | 8 |
| Malacanthus latovittatus | occasional | 7 |
| Variola louti | occasional | 7 |
| Halichoeres hortulanus | occasional | 7 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | occasional | 6 |
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | occasional | 6 |
| Platax orbicularis | occasional | 6 |
| Chlorurus gibbus | occasional | 6 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | occasional | 6 |
| Balistoides viridescens | occasional | 6 |
| Cheilinus quinquecinctus | occasional | 6 |
| Neoniphon sammara | occasional | 5 |
| Cephalopholis miniata | occasional | 5 |
| Epinephelus tauvina | occasional | 5 |
| Plectorhinchus gaterinus | occasional | 5 |
| Pseudocheilinus hexataenia | occasional | 5 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | occasional | 5 |
| Anampses twistii | occasional | 5 |
| Pseudodax moluccanus | occasional | 5 |
| Pseudobalistes flavimarginatus | occasional | 5 |
| Pycnochromis dimidiatus | occasional | 5 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | occasional | 5 |
| Zebrasoma xanthurum | occasional | 5 |
| Lutjanus bohar | occasional | 5 |
| Bodianus anthioides | rare | 4 |
| Millepora dichotoma | rare | 4 |
| Theonella swinhoei | rare | 4 |
| Triaenodon obesus | rare | 4 |
| Caesio lunaris | rare | 4 |
| Chromis flavaxilla | rare | 4 |
| Dascyllus marginatus | rare | 4 |
| Epibulus insidiator | rare | 4 |
| Pterois miles | rare | 4 |
Nearby sites in Marsa Alam
Explore all sitesAbu Dabab II0.1 km
Marsa AlamThe second of six numbered reefs a few kilometres off the Marsa Alam coast, dived with number three as a single shallow speedboat dive.
Gota Hossam0.5 km
Marsa AlamA horseshoe of two reefs closing around a shallow pool of coral gardens, 18 m at its deepest.
Long Canyon0.6 km
Marsa AlamA single fissure in the reef that takes fifteen to twenty minutes to swim, opening into chambers on the way through.
Abu Dabab III0.8 km
Marsa AlamThe third and larger of the offshore Abu Dabbab reefs: two facing pinnacles, narrow tunnels on the south side, and a burnt-out liveaboard in the channel next door.
Abu Dabab IV2.5 km
Marsa AlamThe quietest of the numbered Abu Dabbab reefs, and the one with the coral cover to show for it.
Om halhalla2.8 km
Marsa AlamA shallow drift past a field of pinnacles that dive guides call an aquarium - and do not offer to snorkellers.
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