SeaLogEgypt · reef · beginner
A shore-entry bay north of Marsa Alam with a seagrass floor between two fringing reefs — turtles graze it, and the operators who run it list dugong.
Marsa Egla is a bay on the coast 11 to 13 km north of Marsa Alam town, dived from the beach. The layout is what makes it: a fringing reef down each side of the bay, north and south, and a floor of seagrass meadow between them. Operators run it either as a single side or as a loop out along one reef and back over the grass. SeaHorse Diving Club, which dives it from shore, grades it easy with no current and notes that the shallow water keeps the entry workable when the weather is poor. Red Sea Diving Safari runs it from its camps as a minibus excursion, describing a large sandy bay with easy access to the reef.
Depth depends on how far out you go. Two operators give a 30 m maximum and a third gives 35 m; the reef slopes gently rather than dropping, and most of the dive is spent well above that. This is a slow site rather than a profile: the seagrass is the reason to be there, and the standard advice from the centres that run it is to work it methodically and look at small things. SeaHorse names batfish, snappers, moray eels, octopus, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, stingrays, groupers and porcupinefish; Scuba World Divers adds ornate ghost pipefish and thorny seahorse to the macro list. SCUBA Travel's own dive report from the bay records several turtles feeding on the seagrass, a coral block holding shoals of glassfish, and one very large moray on the way back.
Green turtles are the reliable sighting and dugong the unreliable one — two operators list dugong in the seagrass here, which is the same reason the bay comes with rules. The codes the Marsa Alam centres brief on ask for a few metres of distance from a dugong, a 15-minute limit on any encounter, no touching and no chasing, and careful fins near the bottom so you do not stir sand into the grass; for turtles, 2 to 3 m of distance, never touch or feed, and never swim directly above one. The occurrence records around this pin back the rest of the list: blue-spotted ribbontail rays, giant moray, peacock cod and coronation trout, bluestripe snapper, banded pipefish, bigfin reef squid and bottlenose dolphin.
Shore entry into the bay, but you need transport and tanks to get there: Red Sea Diving Safari runs it from its camps as a minibus excursion, and other Marsa Alam centres reach it by vehicle from bases along the coast road. Entry is over sand into shallow water, and the reef is a short swim out on either side of the bay.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Nothing published closes this bay, but the seagrass bays along this coast are managed: operators brief on marine-wildlife codes before entering the water, and some seagrass areas in the region have been put off limits or capped for visitor numbers. Check the current position with the centre taking you.
The Marsa Alam marine-wildlife codes the centres brief on apply here because of the seagrass. For dugong: keep a few metres, limit an encounter to 15 minutes, never touch or chase, and watch your fins near the bottom. For turtles, per TURTLEWATCH Egypt: keep 2 to 3 m, never touch or feed, and never swim directly above one, which stops it surfacing to breathe. HEPCA's dolphin code is enforced with a 10,000 EGP fine. Red Sea boats also moor rather than anchor, on HEPCA's 1,000-plus buoy system.
No operator we read ties a season to this bay. It is a sheltered shore dive with no current, which is exactly the kind of site that stays dived when the offshore reefs are blown out, so we have left the months blank rather than invent a preference.
A calm, sheltered bay: sandy entry, gentle slope, no current reported, and shallow enough that the entry stays usable in poor weather. Blue Submarine describes the water as clear but no source we read gives a visibility figure, so we have left it blank.
On current: SeaHorse Diving Club, which runs the site from shore, records the current as none and grades the dive easy; Blue Submarine puts it at 2 on its own 1-to-5 scale. Nothing we read describes a drift here. On depth the sources differ mildly — 30 m from two operators, 35 m from a third — and we have carried the deeper figure, though the slope is gentle and most of the dive is far shallower than either number.
Two of the operators who dive it give a 30 m maximum and a third gives 35 m. The bay slopes gently rather than dropping off, so most of the dive sits far above either figure — the seagrass floor and the inner parts of the two reefs are shallow. We carry 35 m as the conservative maximum.
Yes. You walk in over the sand of the bay and the reef is a short swim out on either side. Getting to the bay itself needs transport: Red Sea Diving Safari runs it from its camps as a minibus excursion and other Marsa Alam centres drive to it from bases along the coast road, which is also where the tanks come from.
Two of the operators who run the site list dugong in its seagrass, alongside green turtles, so it is possible rather than reliable — the turtles are the dependable sighting. If one does turn up, the local code asks for a few metres of distance, a maximum of 15 minutes, no touching and no chasing, and careful fins so you do not stir sand into the grass it is feeding on.
It is one of the easier dives on this coast. The operators grade it easy or beginner, one records the current as none, and the entry is over sand into shallow water that stays workable when the weather turns. The depth is optional: you can spend the whole dive in the shallows over the seagrass.
Yes, and it is one of the better snorkels in the area for the same reason it is a good dive: the seagrass meadow with its grazing turtles lies shallow in a sheltered bay with no current. SeaHorse Diving Club calls the site ideal for snorkelling. The wildlife distance rules apply to snorkellers exactly as they do to divers.
Green turtles on the seagrass first, and then a lot of small things. The operators name batfish, snappers, moray eels, octopus, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, stingrays, groupers and porcupinefish, with ornate ghost pipefish and thorny seahorse for macro hunters. Records around the bay add blue-spotted ribbontail rays, giant moray, peacock cod, coronation trout, bluestripe snapper, banded pipefish and bigfin reef squid.
The operator that publishes a rating records it as none, and nothing we read describes this bay as a drift. That is part of why it is used as a slow, methodical dive for photographers and why it stays diveable when the offshore sites are not. Conditions on the day are still worth confirming with whoever is driving you out.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Taeniura lymma | occasional | 14 |
| Pterois miles | occasional | 12 |
| Arothron diadematus | occasional | 9 |
| Paracirrhites forsteri | occasional | 8 |
| Dascyllus abudafur | occasional | 7 |
| Chaetodon paucifasciatus | occasional | 5 |
| Heniochus intermedius | occasional | 5 |
| Rhinecanthus assasi | occasional | 5 |
| Amphiprion bicinctus | rare | 4 |
| Bodianus anthioides | rare | 4 |
| Corythoichthys flavofasciatus | rare | 4 |
| Zebrasoma desjardinii | rare | 4 |
| Acanthurus sohal | rare | 4 |
| Halichoeres hortulanus | rare | 4 |
| Chromis viridis | rare | 3 |
| Sepioteuthis lessoniana | rare | 3 |
| Arothron hispidus | rare | 3 |
| Callechelys marmorata | rare | 3 |
| Cephalopholis argus | rare | 3 |
| Chaetodon austriacus | rare | 3 |
| Dascyllus trimaculatus | rare | 3 |
| Echeneis naucrates | rare | 3 |
| Lutjanus kasmira | rare | 3 |
| Pseudodax moluccanus | rare | 3 |
| Variola louti | rare | 3 |
| Neoniphon sammara | rare | 2 |
| Dascyllus marginatus | rare | 2 |
| Chaetodon fasciatus | rare | 2 |
| Abudefduf vaigiensis | rare | 2 |
| Thalassoma rueppellii | rare | 2 |
| Torpedo panthera | rare | 2 |
| Arothron stellatus | rare | 2 |
| Balistapus undulatus | rare | 2 |
| Chaetodon semilarvatus | rare | 2 |
| Chlorurus sordidus | rare | 2 |
| Coris aygula | rare | 2 |
| Mulloidichthys flavolineatus | rare | 2 |
| Naso elegans | rare | 2 |
| Ostorhinchus cyanosoma | rare | 2 |
| Gymnothorax javanicus | rare | 2 |
| Fistularia commersonii | rare | 2 |
| Rastrelliger kanagurta | rare | 1 |
| Scolopsis ghanam | rare | 1 |
| Diodon hystrix | rare | 1 |
| Diploprion drachi | rare | 1 |
| Inimicus filamentosus | rare | 1 |
| Millepora dichotoma | rare | 1 |
| Scorpaenopsis oxycephalus | rare | 1 |
| Myrichthys maculosus | rare | 1 |
| Tridacna maxima | rare | 1 |
| Triaenodon obesus | rare | 1 |
| Octopus cyanea | rare | 1 |
| Pomacentrus sulfureus | rare | 1 |
| Crella (Grayella) cyathophora | rare | 1 |
| Tursiops truncatus | rare | 1 |
| Pseudocheilinus evanidus | rare | 1 |
| Cassiopea andromeda | rare | 1 |
| Pygoplites diacanthus | rare | 1 |
| Cheilodipterus macrodon | rare | 1 |
| Cheilodipterus novemstriatus | rare | 1 |
A shore-entry bay north of Marsa Alam with a seagrass floor between two reef arms, dived slowly for dugong and green turtles.
A narrow U-shaped bay 11 km from Marsa Alam, walked into from the beach, that stays divable when the wind shuts everything else.
The outer northern reef at the mouth of Marsa Gabal el Rosas, named for the anemone colony on its 22 m plateau.
A shallow coral garden on the fringing reef in front of the Abo Nawas resort, dived from its jetty or drifted from a speedboat out of Gabal el Rosas.
One of the few Egyptian reefs you may dive unguided, as often as you like, straight off the beach.
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