Saudi Arabia · Red Sea
Jeddah Reefs
Red Sea conditions are usually most comfortable outside the hottest summer stretch.
Jeddah's offshore reefs are the Red Sea's quietly-best-kept secret — pristine walls and pinnacles barely touched compared to Egyptian sites further north. Saudi tourism opening has begun to make the diving accessible.
Good season
October–May. Summer surface temperatures are oppressive.
Trip duration
5–7 nights; liveaboards now emerging.
Dive style
Wall and reef diving with moderate current.
Dive level
Advanced 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
Saudi Red Sea reefs are some of the world's least-visited. Expect intact reef cover and minimal diver impact.
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: +-1 °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
Multi-use MPAInside a designated MPA that permits regulated fishing and other uses. Worth checking which zones at this location are no-take.
Fishing pressure
Moderate fishing pressureDominant pressures
- industrial fishing
- limited monitoring
1 Green Fins-verified operator known at this location.
What you can do
Saudi Arabia's NEOM and Red Sea Project mega-developments are introducing new MPA frameworks. Remote Red Sea zones (Sudan, Saudi, Eritrea) have less enforcement infrastructure. Picking liveaboards that participate in reef research helps fund data collection.
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
0 curatedDive sites for this location are still being curated.
We’re working through our top destinations first. Check back soon, or browse the globe for areas with sites already mapped.
Gear
What to bringWhat divers say
“The reefs look like Egypt 40 years ago. The Kingdom has been protected by inaccessibility.”