Sha’ab Sheer East

The dive

Sha'ab Sheer, also called Hyndeman Reef, is a boomerang or horseshoe-shaped reef about a kilometre long, running east to west southeast of Safaga Island. This pin is its eastern end, which Safaga operators dive as a site in its own right; the western end and Sha'ab Sheer Soraya to the south are separate dives with their own pins.

The structure at this end is three ergs, isolated coral towers, standing off the main reef and leaving a shallow channel between them and the reef's east tip. Outside the channel there is an extensive garden of hard corals, brain corals in particular, over a flat sea floor that one Safaga centre describes as looking lunar. Pinnacles rise from the seabed with narrow canyons between them, and there are caves and grottos at this end of the reef. Depth is quoted at 30 m by three of the centres that dive it and 20 m by a fourth, with the reef top and the coral garden starting around 5 m.

The channel is the variable. Operators describe it as able to get lively, and on the north side of the reef the current splits and runs both east and west, with occasional strong flow around the corners while the water behind the reef stays mainly gentle. Two Safaga centres that break the east end out separately rate it advanced or level 3; others describing the reef as a whole call it suitable for all levels with Open Water as the minimum. The conservative reading is that the sheltered side is easy and the channel and corners are not, and which of those you get is decided on the morning.

The fish are the standard Red Sea reef assemblage with some schooling: triggerfish including redtooth, parrotfish, wrasse and surgeonfish over the coral, bannerfish, sweetlips and angelfish in groups, and bream, bigeye emperors, jacks and snapper on the northern plateau, with barracuda, tuna and Spanish mackerel passing. Whitetip reef sharks turn up occasionally and dolphins visit the reef often enough that one operator lists them; bottlenose and spinner dolphin and a false killer whale are all recorded in the occurrence data at this pin. This is also the reef the Salem Express struck in December 1991, and the wreck lies about 2 km away as a separate site.

• Three ergs standing off the reef with a shallow channel between them and the east tip
• Extensive hard coral garden of brain corals on the flat outside the channel
• Pinnacles from the seabed with narrow canyons between them
• Bream, bigeye emperors, jacks and snapper on the northern plateau
• Dolphins reported by operators; bottlenose, spinner and false killer whale all recorded at this pin

Conditions

Hard coral garden and pinnacles over a flat bottom, with the three ergs and the channel at the east tip and a plateau along the north side. None of the Safaga centres we read publish a visibility figure or a water temperature for this site, so neither is recorded here. The one condition every source mentions is current, and it is described as variable rather than constant: gentle behind the reef, lively in the channel, occasionally strong at the corners.

On current: The east end is where the reef's current is. Safaga centres describe the shallow channel between the three ergs and the tip of the reef as able to get lively, and note that along the north side the current splits and runs both east and west. One operator summarises the reef as having occasional strong current around the corners and being mainly gentle behind the reef, which is the usual shape of the day: you dive the sheltered side when the channel is running. Strong current is also described as common around the nearby Al Kahfain wreck, 340 m from this pin. Depth is quoted as 30 m by three Safaga centres and 20 m by a fourth; the deeper figure is used here.