Shaab Samadai / Dolphin House

The dive

Shaab Samadai is a horseshoe-shaped reef about 1.4 km long and 1 km wide, roughly 11 km (6 nautical miles) south-east of the Marsa Alam anchorage. Its inner lagoon is 6-7 m deep, deepening to about 15 m at the southern edge, and the outer walls fall away to around 200 m on the west side and 600 m on the east. A resident group of spinner dolphins uses the lagoon as a daytime resting area: they feed in open water at night and come inside to rest during the day, which is exactly the behaviour that made the reef both famous and vulnerable.

What governs a visit here is the zoning scheme, not the topography. HEPCA and Egypt's EEAA signed the agreement establishing Samadai as a protected area in 2001, and the reef has been run under a three-zone plan since, with HEPCA managing the site's conservation programme since 2013. Zone A is the inner lagoon and is closed to all entry - it is the dolphins' sanctuary. Zone B is the snorkelling zone, where speedboat transit is prohibited. Zone C is where mooring and diving happen. On top of the zones sit hard daily caps: a maximum of 10 boats, no more than 175 snorkellers and 100 divers, snorkelling between 10:00 and 14:00 and diving between 09:00 and 15:00, with a 105 LE per-person fee split 30% to HEPCA's mooring and monitoring programme, 30% to Egypt's National Parks conservation fund and 40% to the Marsa Alam municipality. Operators typically bill the ticket at a fixed price in euros - Red Sea Diving Safari lists EUR 19 for the Samadai excursion.

The diving in Zone C is the reason to come even without dolphins: a well-preserved hard- and soft-coral garden over a series of pinnacles, drop-offs, swim-throughs, and a cave system through one of the reef blocks that operators reserve for experienced divers. Published depths run 5-25 m over the pinnacles with the outer reef stepping to about 30 m; one operator quotes a 40 m maximum, and we record the conservative figure.

Our OBIS record for this reef is small but pointed: the single most-recorded taxon is Stenella longirostris, the spinner dolphin, with Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin also present, alongside ordinary reef fauna - two-band anemonefish, daisy parrotfish, coral hind, royal angelfish, sea goldies. That is the occurrence record agreeing with what the site is managed for. It is still not a guarantee: the resident group is around 60 animals but daily counts have ranged from 3 to 210, highest May to July and lowest February to April, and snorkellers in Zone B get better odds than divers in Zone C.

• Zone A, the inner lagoon, is closed to all entry - the dolphins' resting area
• Zone B snorkelling only, no speedboats; Zone C mooring and diving
• Hard daily caps: 10 boats, 175 snorkellers, 100 divers, fixed hours, ticketed
• Pinnacles, drop-offs and a cave system in a well-preserved coral garden
• Spinner dolphins rest here by day - present most days, guaranteed none

Conditions

A sheltered horseshoe. The reef's own shape breaks the swell, the inner lagoon is 6-7 m and flat, and the dive zone is rated easy with low to medium current. Visibility is quoted at up to 30 m. Water is about 23 C in January and 29 C in August. Boats moor on fixed moorings in Zone C rather than anchoring.

On current: The operator rates the site easy with low to medium current, and it is run for snorkellers and intro divers as well as certified ones. Depth figures disagree: 5-25 m over the pinnacles with the outer reef to about 30 m in one description, a 40 m maximum in another; we record the conservative 30 m. Visibility is quoted at up to 30 m. Water runs about 23 C in January and 29 C in August. The lagoon itself is 6-7 m and is closed to entry, so it is not a depth you will ever dive.

Best months: May, Jun, Jul

Dives & underwater footage