Shark & Yolanda Reef, Ras Mohammed
Two pinnacles at the tip of Sinai with summer fish aggregations, ending on a cargo of scattered toilets.
- Depth
- 5–40 m16–131 ft
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Entry
- Boat
- Typical current
- Strong
- Coordinates
- 27°43.302′N 34°15.384′E
- Activities
- Scuba
Ras Mohammed is Egypt's first national park and Shark and Yolanda are its signature dive, usually done as one long drift. The two reefs stand in open water where the Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba meet, and in July and August enormous aggregations of snapper, batfish and barracuda gather to spawn. The dive finishes over the cargo of the Yolanda, wrecked in 1980 — its containers of bathroom fittings are scattered across the sand and are, improbably, one of the most photographed things in the Red Sea.
Day boat from Sharm el-Sheikh, about 45 minutes.
Best season
- ExcellentJun–Oct
- GoodMar–May
- GoodNov–Dec
- FairJan–Feb
Before you get in
- Going inside a wreck is an overhead environment: silt can take the visibility in seconds, and there is entanglement. Swimming the outside of it is a different dive.
- Past 30 m, where no-stop time and gas both go quickly and nitrogen narcosis starts to show.
- A wall. There is no bottom in sight to judge against, so depth is kept by the gauge alone — and it is easy to end up deeper than intended.
- Recorded as a site with strong current. Settle your gas reserve, when you would call the dive, and your surface signal before you get in.
- A drift dive: you do not come back to where you went in, so boat pickup and an SMB are part of the plan rather than extras.
Taken from this site’s recorded depth, type and current, and nothing else. An empty list is not a safe site — the sea on the day, the local geography and the boat traffic are not in it. The briefing on the spot comes first.
Conditions
No live conditions for this site yet.
We only show numbers we can attribute to a source.
Sea state and tide
Marine life you may see
- Red lionfishPterois volitansCommon
- Scalefin anthiasPseudanthias squamipinnisCommon
- Bluespotted ribbontail rayTaeniura lymmaCommon
- Blackfin barracudaSphyraena qenieCommon
- Giant trevallyCaranx ignobilisCommon
- Napoleon wrasseCheilinus undulatusCommon
- Green turtleChelonia mydasSeasonal
- Grey reef sharkCarcharhinus amblyrhynchosSeasonal
- Staghorn coralAcropora spp.Common
- TrumpetfishAulostomus chinensisCommon
- PorcupinefishDiodon hystrixRare
- Bluestripe snapperLutjanus kasmiraCommon
- Emperor angelfishPomacanthus imperatorCommon
- Titan triggerfishBalistoides viridescensCommon
- Fire coralMillepora spp.Common
- Reef stonefishSynanceia verrucosaRare
- Feather starCrinoideaRare
- Yellowmargin triggerfishPseudobalistes flavimarginatusCommon
From divers
What people who were in the water reported. Not a forecast, and not a judgement about whether the site is safe to dive.
No recent reports from divers. If you dived here in the last two weeks, you can say how it was.
Sign in to report conditions.
How divers rate this site
Rating is open to divers who have logged a dive here.
Who is going
Nobody has planned a dive here yet.
Somebody reading this page is the most likely person in the world to organise one.
Create a planDive shops here
No dive shop has claimed this site yet.
Be the first shop to join BubbleSong Diving World.
Register your shop