SeaLogEgypt · reef · intermediate
The northernmost named spot on the Ras Abu Galum stretch: a shore entry over stone onto a sandy slope, with redtooth triggerfish and bannerfish schooling over small coral pinnacles.
Red Tooth Trigger Bay is the northernmost of the four pins our catalogue holds along the Ras Abu Galum stretch, about a kilometre up the coast from the umbrella Ras Abu Galum entry and roughly 6 km north of Dahab's Blue Hole. Circle Divers Dahab, which supplied the only site-specific description that exists for it, records a shore entry that works in most weather: a few metres of stone, then a sandy slope. The guides call the place The Garden. No road reaches it. You arrive from the Blue Hole dock by speedboat in about 20 minutes, by camel in about an hour and a half, and the logistics are the reason this is a day out rather than a dive.
It is a small area. Coral runs from about 3 m down to as deep as 50 m on the operator's account, but the same shop publishes 0 to 30 m as the working range for the Abu Galum stretch, and 30 m is the sensible bottom of a plan on a shore dive with no boat cover. You descend the sandy slope into schools of bannerfish and redtooth triggerfish, which is where the name comes from. The coral stands in small pinnacles of both hard and soft species, with table corals spread over the sand; scorpionfish, anemonefish, anthias and puffers sit in and under them.
One caution about the name. "Red Tooth Trigger Bay" appears only in Circle Divers' own listing, and no other operator or guide we could find uses it. H2O Divers Dahab describes a different spot on the same headland, The Rocks, also called Triggerfish Alley, as a nursery ground for redtooth triggerfish, dived at about 20 m by sitting in the current and letting it carry you, and rates that one advanced. The two may be the same water under two names or two spots a few hundred metres apart; nothing we read joins them. Take the triggerfish as what this stretch is known for rather than a guarantee at this pin.
Occurrence records inside 1.5 km of the pin are thin, 54 taxa and almost all of them single records, which says more about how few surveyors get this far north than about the reef. They do carry the two animals the operator description picks out, spotted eagle ray and Spanish dancer, along with sea goldies, twoband anemonefish, royal and emperor angelfish, several parrotfishes, devil firefish, masked and starry puffers, a striped pyjama nudibranch and fire coral.
There is no road. Operators run it from the Blue Hole dock: about 20 minutes by speedboat, or about an hour and a half by camel with the animals carrying tanks and gear. H2O Divers also describes a one-hour camel leg and a four-hour truck route round via Nuweiba. The standard day trip is two dives and lunch in the Bedouin village; the overnight version adds a night dive and a hut.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Inside the Abu Galum Protected Area. The protectorate's guidance is that visitors should always be with a local Bedouin guide, and in practice the dive is reached only on an operator's trip.
Abu Galum Protected Area, 400 km2 of coast between Dahab and Nuweiba, declared in 1992 for its coral reefs and mangroves. The protectorate's guidance forbids divers from entering the underwater caves in the area and tells visitors to move with a local Bedouin guide.
The entry is the easy part: Circle Divers says the shore entrance works in most weather, over stone for a few metres and then onto sand. What varies is whether the trip runs at all, because everything here hangs on a 20-minute open-water speedboat leg from the Blue Hole, or the camel alternative. Depth is a matter of how far down the slope you go rather than where you get in, and the coral standing at about 3 m means the last part of the dive is a long shallow stretch.
On current: No operator publishes a current rating for this spot. PADI's record for it, filed by Circle Divers, classes it as a drift as well as a beach dive, which implies the guide expects to move with the water rather than swim back to the entry. H2O Divers describes a redtooth-triggerfish spot elsewhere on the same headland where the profile is to sit at about 20 m and let the current take you, and rates that one advanced. This is an exposed headland worked from an open-water speedboat leg, and which of the stretch's half-dozen spots gets dived is settled on the day by wind and sea state. Ask at the briefing rather than assuming the sheltered conditions of Dahab's town reefs. On depth, the two figures the same operator publishes are 50 m of coral and a 0 to 30 m working range; we record 3 to 30 m, the conservative reading.
Circle Divers, the only operator that describes the site, says coral runs from as deep as 50 m right up to 3 m, but the same shop publishes 0 to 30 m as the working range for the whole Ras Abu Galum stretch. We record 3 to 30 m. This is a shore dive with no boat cover, so the 50 m figure describes how far the coral goes down, not a profile anyone should plan.
There is no road to it. Operators leave from the Blue Hole dock north of Dahab, either by speedboat in about 20 minutes or by camel in about an hour and a half with the animals carrying tanks and gear. H2O Divers also describes a one-hour camel leg and a four-hour truck route round via Nuweiba. The standard trip is two dives and lunch in the Bedouin village, with an overnight version that adds a night dive.
The water is forgiving but the day is not. The entrance itself is described as easy in most weather, a few metres of stone onto a sandy slope, and the interesting coral starts shallow. Circle Divers rates the Abu Galum stretch intermediate overall and classes this spot as a drift as well as a beach dive, and the site is an hour or more from any road, so it suits a diver who is comfortable rather than one on their fourth dive.
Yes, over the shallow part. The coral comes up to about 3 m here and Sea Dancer Dive Center says snorkellers are welcome on the Abu Galum trip and rates the snorkelling on this stretch highly, so non-diving companions usually come along. You still have to make the speedboat or camel journey to get here, and you go with a guide.
The operator description promises schools of bannerfish and redtooth triggerfish as soon as you are down the slope, small hard- and soft-coral pinnacles, and table corals holding scorpionfish, anemonefish, anthias and puffers. Nudibranchs including the Spanish dancer are named, and turtles and eagle rays have been seen. Occurrence records at the pin back the eagle ray and the Spanish dancer, and add angelfish, parrotfish, devil firefish and puffers, though they are thin because almost nobody surveys this far north.
Nobody publishes a figure. PADI's record for the site, filed by Circle Divers, lists it as a drift as well as a beach dive, which implies you move with the water rather than swim back to your entry. H2O Divers describes a redtooth-triggerfish spot elsewhere on the same headland where the whole technique is to sit at about 20 m and let the current carry you. This is an exposed headland, so treat the briefing as the plan.
The site is inside the Abu Galum Protected Area, 400 km2 of coast between Dahab and Nuweiba declared in 1992 for its coral reefs and mangroves. The protectorate's guidance is that visitors should always be accompanied by a local Bedouin guide, and it forbids divers from entering the underwater caves in the area, calling them unstable and deadly. In practice you dive it as part of an operator's trip rather than arranging it yourself.
Not quite. Ras Abu Galum is a stretch of protected coast with around six named spots along it, and the guide picks between them on the day; Red Tooth Trigger Bay is the northernmost of them in our catalogue, about a kilometre up the coast from the main Ras Abu Galum pin. It is the only one with its own written description, and that description exists in one place only, so treat it as a named corner of a bigger trip.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Pseudanthias squamipinnis | rare | 4 |
| Epinephelus fasciatus | rare | 3 |
| Tridacna maxima | rare | 3 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | rare | 3 |
| Arothron stellatus | rare | 3 |
| Scarus niger | rare | 2 |
| Aetobatus ocellatus | rare | 2 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | rare | 2 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | rare | 2 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | rare | 2 |
| Amblyglyphidodon indicus | rare | 2 |
| Pterois miles | rare | 2 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | rare | 2 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | rare | 2 |
| Amphiprion bicinctus | rare | 2 |
| Acanthurus nigrofuscus | rare | 2 |
| Millepora dichotoma | rare | 1 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | rare | 1 |
| Parapercis hexophtalma | rare | 1 |
| Abudefduf vaigiensis | rare | 1 |
| Plagiotremus tapeinosoma | rare | 1 |
| Pomacanthus imperator | rare | 1 |
| Pseudodax moluccanus | rare | 1 |
| Scarus ferrugineus | rare | 1 |
| Siganus luridus | rare | 1 |
| Sufflamen albicaudatum | rare | 1 |
| Synanceia verrucosa | rare | 1 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | rare | 1 |
| Pleurobranchus grandis | rare | 1 |
| Pycnochromis dimidiatus | rare | 1 |
| Stegastes lacrymatus | rare | 1 |
| Abudefduf sexfasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Cheilinus quinquecinctus | rare | 1 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | rare | 1 |
| Genicanthus caudovittatus | rare | 1 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | rare | 1 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | rare | 1 |
| Zebrasoma xanthurum | rare | 1 |
| Parupeneus forsskali | rare | 1 |
| Arothron diadematus | rare | 1 |
| Bodianus anthioides | rare | 1 |
| Callyspongia (Callyspongia) siphonella | rare | 1 |
| Callyspongia crassa | rare | 1 |
| Cheilinus lunulatus | rare | 1 |
| Chromodoris quadricolor | rare | 1 |
| Coris aygula | rare | 1 |
| Ctenochaetus striatus | rare | 1 |
| Fistularia commersonii | rare | 1 |
| Heniochus diphreutes | rare | 1 |
| Heniochus intermedius | rare | 1 |
| Hexabranchus sanguineus | rare | 1 |
| Inimicus filamentosus | rare | 1 |
| Lambis truncata | rare | 1 |
| Lethrinus nebulosus | rare | 1 |
A roadless stretch of Sinai reef inside a 1992 protectorate, reached from the Blue Hole by speedboat or on a camel that carries your tanks.
The chimney entry to the Blue Hole traverse - a straightforward recreational dive attached to the most lethal dive site in recreational diving.
A 100 m shaft in the reef with a 6 m sill over the top. The ordinary dive here is a shallow swim; the reputation belongs to the Arch.
A quiet coral garden south of the Blue Hole, entered off a jetty when the wind allows.
A quiet slope of salad and table corals 300 m north of the Canyon, usually dived as a one-way drift back to it.
A roofed crack in the reef north of Dahab: an overhead environment with a recreational front door and a technical back one.
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