Daedalus Reef — Brothers Islands

Planning a trip?

Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Brothers Islands location page.

Overview

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 1931. Walls drop from the surface to 20 m then slope to 40 m before plunging into 550 m of open water. The north tip is the money dive — a current-swept point where scalloped hammerhead schools queue in summer and oceanic threshers cruise the blue. The south plateau holds 'Anemone City', a 15 m carpet of magnificent anemones and clownfish. Liveaboard-only.

Briefing note

Liveaboard-only — no day boats. Crossings can be rough October–April; check sea state before booking shoulder-season trips. The lighthouse island itself is staffed by Egyptian coast guard; landings are at their discretion. Northern tip is exposed; if currents exceed safe limits the dive guide will reroute to the sheltered east or west walls.

What you'll see

9 species curated

Scalloped hammerhead
seasonal
Peak: Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Pelagic thresher shark
seasonal
Peak: May · Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Oceanic whitetip shark
seasonal
Peak: Oct · Nov · Dec
Silky shark
seasonal
Peak: Jun · Jul · Aug · Sep
Grey reef shark
year-round
Whale shark
rare
Manta ray
rare
Humphead wrasse
year-round
Magnificent anemone & anemonefish
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Scalloped hammerhead
medium confidence
Last confirmed
Sep 2025
Recent records
45 within 50 km
Cluster months
Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
Wildbook (Sharkbook, Whale Shark, Manta Matcher) — Wild Me
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	22–24 °C	25–35 m	moderate
Feb	21–23 °C	25–35 m	moderate
Mar	22–24 °C	25–40 m	moderate
Apr	23–25 °C	25–40 m	moderate
May	25–27 °C	25–40 m	moderate
Jun	27–29 °C	30–40 m	strong
Jul	28–30 °C	30–40 m	strong
Aug	28–30 °C	30–40 m	strong
Sep	27–29 °C	30–40 m	strong
Oct	26–28 °C	25–40 m	moderate
Nov	24–26 °C	25–35 m	moderate
Dec	23–25 °C	25–35 m	moderate

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

SMB + long reel — Dives end as blue-water drifts away from the reef; every diver shoots their own marker for the zodiac pickup.
Nitrox certification — Hammerhead encounters happen at 25–40 m on the north tip — EAN32 buys meaningful bottom time across 3–4 dives a day.
Dive light — Strong sun on shallow walls but the swim-throughs on the south plateau and the wall slopes past 30 m hold shaded crevices worth peering into.

Next step

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Hotels, liveaboards, dive operators, gear recommendations, and travel logistics for the whole region.

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