Egypt · Red Sea
Brothers Islands
Prime offshore season for pelagics and stronger visibility on southern liveaboards.
Two tiny rocks 60km offshore in the Egyptian Red Sea, the Brothers are two seamounts wrapped in soft coral and patrolled by oceanic whitetips, threshers, hammerheads, and the occasional silky. Liveaboard-only.
Good season
May–November is the open season; the park closes in winter. October–November is peak for oceanic whitetips and threshers.
Trip duration
7-night liveaboard combining Brothers/Daedalus/Elphinstone, departing Port Ghalib or Hurghada.
Dive style
Wall and seamount diving with strong current; negative entries.
Dive level
Advanced + 50+ dives; nitrox strongly recommended.
Reef health
What you’ll actually findOne of the few reefs whose live coral has held up over the last decade. Plan with confidence.
Coral reef health
How is this calculated?Heat stress right now
No abnormal heat right now. Corals stay coloured.
NOAA Coral Reef Watch · updated May 2026 · 0 °C-week heat dose
What to expect on a dive
Strong currents and offshore pelagics. Coral cover on the walls is among the best in the Red Sea.
Sources, methodology, and the raw numbers
Raw observed numbers
- Coral cover: 42% (survey Sep 2024, HEPCA + GCRMN Red Sea transect)
- Bleached: 6%
- Recent mortality: 2%
- Red Sea refugium — observed condition reflects the stable regional pattern.
Raw thermal numbers
- NOAA CRW alert level: No stress
- Degree Heating Weeks: 0 °C-wk
- SST anomaly: +-0.4 °C
How we summarise this
Observed coral cover, bleaching, and mortality come from named in-situ surveys with a stated date and method — they describe one snapshot of one reef and do not extrapolate to neighbouring sites. Current thermal stress is satellite-derived from NOAA Coral Reef Watch at ~5 km resolution; it indicates risk, not observed coral damage. We deliberately separate observed condition, current thermal stress, and projection — and we never publish a projection without a documented model and uncertainty.
Sources
- Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network — GCRMN / ICRI
- NOAA Coral Reef Watch — U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
- AIMS Long-Term Monitoring Program — Australian Institute of Marine Science
- Atlantic and Gulf Rapid Reef Assessment — AGRRA Program / Perry Institute for Marine Science
- NOAA National Coral Reef Monitoring Program — NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program
- Reef Check — Reef Check Foundation
- NOAA CoastWatch / OceanWatch — NOAA NESDIS / STAR
- Allen Coral Atlas — Arizona State University Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority — Australian Government
- International Coral Reef Initiative — ICRI Secretariat
- Reef Life Survey — Reef Life Survey Foundation
- NASA PO.DAAC — NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Caltech
- Copernicus Marine Service — Mercator Ocean International for the European Union
- NASA Ocean Color (OB.DAAC) — NASA Goddard Space Flight Center / Ocean Biology Processing Group
- Argo float network — International Argo Program / UCSD
- CoralWatch — University of Queensland
- IMOS / AODN — Integrated Marine Observing System / Australian Ocean Data Network
- WRI Reefs at Risk Revisited — World Resources Institute
- Ocean Health Index — OHI partnership (Conservation International + UCSB + NCEAS)
- IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere (SROCC) — Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
- GOA-ON — Global Ocean Acidification Observing Network — GOA-ON Secretariat + IOC-UNESCO
- HAEDAT — Harmful Algae Event Database — IOC-UNESCO Intergovernmental Panel on Harmful Algal Blooms
- NCEI Marine Microplastics — NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
Reef condition changes year to year. If you visit, consider supporting responsible-travel and conservation operators on the ground.
Pressure on this reef
Protection · fishing · what you can doProtected-area status
Strict MPAInside a strict marine protected area with active enforcement.
Fishing pressure
Moderate fishing pressureDominant pressures
- dive tourism
- coastal development on Sinai coast
- shipping
4 Green Fins-verified operators known at this location.
What you can do
Brothers/Daedalus/Elphinstone are part of the Marine Protected Area network. Ras Mohammed and surrounding marine parks are well-enforced; daily park fees fund rangers. The wider Red Sea sees heavy shipping and coastal building pressure.
Protection status sourced from Protected Planet / WDPA and refined with Marine Protection Atlas. Fishing pressure proxy is Global Fishing Watch AIS data. See the methodology for what these sources can and can’t prove.
Dive sites here
7 curated
Big Brother
Offshore pinnacle in the southern Red Sea with two wrecks on the plateau — the Numidia and the Aida. Walls drop into the blue where oceanic …

Little Brother
The smaller of the two El Ikhwa pinnacles, one kilometre south of Big Brother and barely 170 metres long. Sheer walls plunge past recreation…

Daedalus Reef
Isolated 400 × 100 m oval reef in the central Red Sea, 90 km east of Marsa Alam, marked by a black-and-white striped lighthouse rebuilt in 1…

Elphinstone Reef
Cigar-shaped reef 12 km off Marsa Alam, 375 m long and aligned north-south with vertical walls dropping past 100 m on either side. The south…

Abu Dabbab
A sheltered horseshoe bay 34 km north of Marsa Alam where a broad seagrass meadow fills the sandy centre between two fringing coral reefs. T…

Sha'ab Samadai (Dolphin House)
Crescent-shaped reef about 11 km southeast of Marsa Alam whose horseshoe arms enclose a shallow turquoise lagoon. A resident pod of 60-90 sp…

St John's Reef
Egypt's southernmost reef system, straddling the Tropic of Cancer in Foul Bay near the Sudanese border and reached only by deep-south liveab…
Gear
What to bringSite-specific add-ons
Some dive sites here call for extra gear. Check the individual site page for full context.
- SMB + long reel — Drift exits in open ocean — operators want long-line SMB. · Big Brother
- Dive light — Two wrecks on the plateau, both worth penetrating with a guide. · Big Brother
- Reef hook — Strong current on the corners; hooking in lets you hold the plateau edge to watch sharks without finning. · Little Brother
- Nitrox certification — Hammerhead encounters happen at 25–40 m on the north tip — EAN32 buys meaningful bottom time across 3–4 dives a day. · Daedalus Reef
- SMB + long reel — Open-ocean drift exits over 100 m of water — boat crews need a marker before you surface · Elphinstone Reef
- Dive computer with deep alarms — Wall drops past recreational limits and currents pull divers deeper than planned · Elphinstone Reef
- Surface marker buoy — Boats and watersports cross the open bay; mark your position before surfacing on the outer reefs · Abu Dabbab
- Macro lens or close-up filter — Seahorses, pipefish and nudibranchs hide in the seagrass and along the reef flanks · Abu Dabbab
- Snorkel set — The dolphin encounter happens in the shallow lagoon and snorkeling belt, not on scuba · Sha'ab Samadai (Dolphin House)
- SMB — Boat traffic is heavy inside the managed area and drift exits run along the outer reef · Sha'ab Samadai (Dolphin House)
What divers say
“Oceanic whitetips at the Brothers don't keep their distance — they come check you out. It's the most respect I've ever felt for a shark.”