Shaab Sheer

Overview

A brain coral garden, some caves, overhangs and grottos, schools of fish - this is "Shaab Sheer", an immensely exciting reef near Safaga. "Shaab Sheer" is over a kilometre long and offers three different diving tours from the perfectly located mooring.

Description

The north side of "Shaab Sheer" is a bit more turbulent, but the south side is like a lagoon and is usually very well protected. We have to reckon with the strongest current on the west side, which faces the "South Safaga Channel". Most divers appreciate the area between three and 15 metres depth because of the quasi "moonscape" of the brain coral garden, nevertheless we find many different reef inhabitants at "Shaab Sheer".
Picasso triggerfish, orange-striped and yellow-fringed triggerfish, parrotfish, pencil filefish and sling jaw wrasses can be found here in masses. In the area of the northern plateau and at the steep wall we can also see bream, bigeye empereor, mackerel, red and black snapper as well as schools of tuna and barracuda.

Hotspots

Brain coral garden: A bizarre lunar landscape awaits us in the brain coral garden, which is particularly popular among divers and is definitely a place well worth seeing.
Grottos and channels: These are located at the Ergs and are home to the most interesting reef inhabitants.

Dive Plans

1.The northern plateau 2.The west side 3.The east side

The northern plateau

Friends of big fish should choose this route. We get in at the mooring and work our way to the north. Through a channel we dive into a huge coral garden. At its northern end is the dropoff.

The west side

Here the current is usually the strongest, but if conditions allow, this dive site is definitely worth a dive. With the reef on our right shoulder, we explore the coral blocks and towers and dive through the channel. After countless encounters with various reef creatures and maybe even some big fish, we set the buoy.

The east side

We start from the mooring and dive through the channel at a depth of 12 meters, which brings us to the brain coral garden. Here we keep to the right and explore the caves and grottos in the ergs until we get back to the boat at the end of the ergs.