Abu Dabab V

Dive centres describe a profile from about 3 to 25 m: a sandy slope broken by coral pinnacles, with the shallow tops near the surface and the sand at the bottom of the range. That keeps the whole dive inside recreational no-decompression limits for most profiles.

By speedboat from the Marsa Alam coast, run as a day trip by local dive centres. There is no shore access and nothing at the reef itself, so you dive from the boat and surface to it. Boats in the Egyptian Red Sea moor on HEPCA's buoy system rather than anchoring on the reef.

It is generally offered to divers of any certification level, and the depth range and reported low-to-medium current on the neighbouring reefs suit newer divers. The caveat is the caves and swim-throughs in the coral blocks: those are an overhead environment and a newly certified diver should stay outside them or follow a guide who knows them.

Almost certainly not. The dugongs the Abu Dabbab name is famous for graze the seagrass in Marsa Abu Dabab bay, which is a separate ticketed shore site, not one of the numbered offshore reefs. What you should expect at this reef is ordinary northern Red Sea fauna, with green turtles widely reported across the Abu Dabbab group.

The occurrence record for this stretch of coast is standard northern Red Sea reef fauna, essentially identical to the neighbouring Abu Dabbab reefs: sohal surgeonfish, bluespotted ribbontail ray, sailfin tang, common lionfish, masked butterflyfish, sergeant major, coral hind, Picasso triggerfish and giant moray. Green turtles are widely reported across the group.

No source publishes a current figure for this reef specifically. Dive centres describe the neighbouring numbered Abu Dabbab reefs as low to medium current, which is a reasonable expectation but not a verified figure for this one. Brief for a possible drift and carry a delayed SMB for the speedboat pickup.

Treat it as recovering. HEPCA's Bleach Watch survey of the 2024 Egyptian Red Sea marine heatwave found bleaching increasing from north to south, from around 9 percent in the Hurghada sector to 50.1 percent at Wadi El Gemal just south of Marsa Alam, with preliminary 2025 recovery estimated at 75-88 percent depending on species and location. No survey exists for this individual reef.