Abu Dabbab 5

The dive

This record is very probably the same reef as our entry 'Abu Dabab V', imported from a different source. The names match, both are the fifth of the numbered Abu Dabbab reefs off Marsa Alam, and the two coordinate sets sit about two kilometres apart on the same offshore stretch - the kind of spread you get when two catalogues place the same reef from different sketches, not the kind you get from two distinct sites. We keep the facts identical rather than inventing a second reef.

Marsa Alam dive centres number a chain of offshore reefs Abu Dabbab I through VII and run them as speedboat day trips. The fifth is quiet and has little literature of its own. The described profile is a sandy slope broken by scattered coral pinnacles, with caves and swim-throughs in the coral blocks, working between roughly 3 and 25 m. Access is by speedboat and the site is offered to divers of any certification level.

Our OBIS records for this position are dense and are the standard northern Red Sea reef assemblage, effectively identical to the neighbouring Abu Dabbab reefs and to Elphinstone a few kilometres away: sohal surgeonfish, bluespotted ribbontail ray, sailfin tang, common lionfish, masked butterflyfish, bullethead parrotfish, scalefin anthias, Klunzinger's wrasse, coral hind, Picasso triggerfish and giant moray.

Green turtles are widely reported across the Abu Dabbab reefs. The dugongs the name is famous for graze the seagrass of Marsa Abu Dabab bay itself and are not to be expected at the numbered offshore reefs.

• Sandy slope with scattered coral pinnacles
• Caves and swim-throughs in the coral blocks
• Speedboat day trip; the quiet end of the Abu Dabbab chain
• Almost certainly the same reef as our 'Abu Dabab V' record

Conditions

Sandy slope with scattered coral pinnacles between about 3 and 25 m. No current figure is published for this specific reef; the neighbouring numbered Abu Dabbab reefs are described as low to medium current, which is context rather than a measurement.

On current: No dive-centre source publishes a current figure specifically for this reef; the neighbouring Abu Dabbab reefs are described as low to medium current. Treat as unverified. Visibility is described qualitatively as good but no number is published, so none is recorded.

Dives & underwater footage