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

Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

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 find
Holding steady

One of the few reefs whose live coral has held up over the last decade. Plan with confidence.

Coral reef health

How is this calculated?
A decade ago
Survey 2014
41%
Today
Survey 2024
42%

Heat stress right now

No stress

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

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 do

Protected-area status

Multi-use MPA

Inside a designated MPA that permits regulated fishing and other uses. Worth checking which zones at this location are no-take.

Fishing pressure

Moderate fishing pressure

Dominant 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

Gear

What to bring

Basic kit

Site-specific add-ons

Some dive sites here call for extra gear. Check the individual site page for full context.

  • Dive computerRepeated deep multi-level dives — wrist computer mandatory. · Shaab Rumi South Plateau
  • SMBCurrents push divers off the plateau into open water. · Shaab Rumi South Plateau
  • Dive lightPenetration into cargo holds and engine room — primary light essential. · Umbria Wreck
  • Dive lightInside 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.
Liveaboard guest