Sudan · Red Sea
Shaab Rumi
Most liveaboard access favors the calmer, drier part of the year.
Shaab Rumi is the offshore reef where Jacques Cousteau ran the Conshelf II underwater habitat experiment in 1963 — remains are still divable. Pristine walls, hammerhead schools, oceanic whitetips, and almost no other divers.
Good season
March–June and October–November. Closed in summer when seas are unworkable.
Trip duration
7-night liveaboard from Port Sudan.
Dive style
Wall and pinnacle drift; strong current. Negative entries.
Dive level
Advanced + 50 dives.
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
Shark plateau and intact southern Red Sea reef. Liveaboard-only access keeps diver pressure low.
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: +-0.6 °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
Sudan's Sanganeb and Dungonab MPAs are recent UNESCO listings; enforcement is modest. 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
4 curated
Shaab Rumi South Plateau
Coral plateau jutting into the Sudanese Red Sea at the southern tip of Shaab Rumi atoll. Hammerhead schools cruise the drop-off in deeper wa…

Umbria Wreck
Italian cargo ship scuttled by her crew in 1940 to keep her load of bombs and munitions from the British. The hull lies on her port side in …

Conshelf II (Précontinent II)
Remains of Jacques Cousteau's 1963 underwater habitat experiment, set 100 m inside the Shaab Rumi lagoon entrance. The Starfish House and De…

Sanganeb Atoll
The only true atoll in the Red Sea, rising from 800 m of open water 25 km off Port Sudan and crowned by a British-built lighthouse. Sheer wa…
Gear
What to bringSite-specific add-ons
Some dive sites here call for extra gear. Check the individual site page for full context.
- Dive computer — Repeated deep multi-level dives — wrist computer mandatory. · Shaab Rumi South Plateau
- SMB — Currents push divers off the plateau into open water. · Shaab Rumi South Plateau
- Dive light — Penetration into cargo holds and engine room — primary light essential. · Umbria Wreck
- Dive light — Inside the hangar the air pocket and grated floor are easier to navigate with a focused beam; the tool shed interior is also dim. · Conshelf II (Précontinent II)
What divers say
“Cousteau's habitat is still there at 10m. The diving above it has barely changed in 60 years.”