Marsa Mubarak

The dive

Marsa Mubarak is a large sheltered bay a few kilometres south of Port Ghalib on the Marsa Alam coast, and it is one of the two Egyptian sites - the other being Marsa Abu Dabab - where dugong encounters are a realistic reason to get in the water rather than a marketing line. The reason is the habitat: the bay has a shallow sandy bottom carpeted with seagrass meadows of Halophila and Halodule, which is dugong food, and one operator calls it one of the most reliable dugong grazing bays in Egypt.

The profile is undemanding. The centre of the bay sits at roughly 6 to 10 m and the outer parts run to 12 to 15 m, with coral blocks and pinnacles around the edges; the shallowest published band is 3 to 18 m. Current is negligible. Both shore and boat entry are used, and the site is sold to snorkellers, beginners and photographers on the same trip.

Our OBIS records here are dense and are the ordinary northern Red Sea reef community rather than the megafauna: bluespotted ribbontail ray, sohal surgeonfish, Klunzinger's wrasse, sailfin tang, broomtail wrasse, diagonal butterflyfish, Picasso triggerfish, sergeant major, common lionfish and live sharksucker all appear in quantity. The dugongs, turtles and eagle rays that people come for are dive-guide and operator reporting, not occurrence data.

Because the bay is shallow and calm, the animals are close to the surface and the temptation to crowd them is high; HEPCA's code of conduct is the constraint that makes the site work.

• Seagrass meadows of Halophila and Halodule - the actual dugong food
• Shallow, calm and current-free; 6-10 m through the middle of the bay
• Shore or boat entry, and genuinely good snorkelling
• Dugongs surface every 30-40 seconds while grazing, so much of it is visible from above
• Coral blocks and pinnacles around the edges of the bay

Conditions

A sheltered, shallow bay with negligible current. Roughly 6-10 m through the middle and 12-15 m on the outer side, over sand and seagrass, with coral blocks around the edges. Visibility is reported at 12-22 m; the conservative 12 m is recorded. The site works year round, and dugongs are reported to feed more actively on tidal changes.

On current: Current is reported as negligible. Visibility is quoted as a 12-22 m range; we record the conservative lower bound. Depth figures disagree - one operator publishes 3-18 m and another describes 6-10 m in the middle of the bay and 12-15 m on the outer side, while PADI lists a 30 m maximum for the record. We take the conservative 3-18 m, which matches every description of what the dive actually is.

Dives & underwater footage