Deep South Red Sea Scuba Diving

St. John's

The St. John's reefs lie on the Tropic of Cancer directly south of the Peninsula (Ras) Banas, near Hamata. They cover a large area of sea and offer a great diversity of Red Sea diving environments.

Habili Ali is a small oval shaped reef that you can circumnavigate in just one dive. There are many crags in the wall, some opening to caverns, which make interesting features to explore for groupers and cardinalfish. The deeper sections host gorgonians and sea whips. Pelagic action, such as jacks and grey reef sharks are common here.

Gota Kebir has several different drift dives to try out. The northern section has 2 plateaus that are ideal for whitetip reef sharks and bluespotted stingrays. In the southeast corner the wall is broken by deep fissures that you can enter. The shallows here have many colourful magnificent anemones and green turtles often feed and rest here.

Gota Sogayar is a small steep walled reef, with gorgonians and sea whips dominating the deep, and juvenile fish and soft corals carpeting the shallows. Often Napoleonfish drift around at the edge of vision, and groups of bumphead parrotfish maraud across the flats in search of food.

Habili Gafar is a small domed pinnacle, with a ledge running around it at 20-35m deep before the reef plunges in to the depths of the Red Sea. Strong currents on the northern side attract barracuda, tuna and reef sharks. The shallower sections of the reef are dominated by pink clasping soft corals and fairy basslets. Lionfish slowly stalk in the shallows, waiting for their opportunity to strike on unsuspecting prey.

Dangerous is the most southerly of the St. John's reefs, but seems oddly named since it is one of the few dive sites in the Southern Red Sea that offer a reasonably shallow flat bottom. This makes it good for an overnight anchorage and a night dive, where you can find squid, Spanish dancers, and hunting moray eels. The topography here makes for great swim-throughs. There are many breaks in the reef shallows that allow easy and safe penetration.

Abu Bassala is one of the larger St. John's reefs and you could make 3 or 4 different dives here. This sickle-shaped reef is unusual for the deep south Red Sea diving since it does not have steep walls. Instead the reef edges offer mazes of columns, gullies, cracks, outcrops, balustrades and folds that run down the wall to the sandy bottom a mere 15-20m below. This reef offers relaxing dives and a break for divers a little tired from deep drift diving.

Finally, Caves, also known as Umm Khararim, is a reef that strictly lies outside of the St. John's reef system but is always visited when diving in the Red Sea's St. John's area. This is a shallow reef with a maximum depth of 18m. The reef is split through by many huge cracks in the reef, from the surface down to the bottom. This means that the whole reef system is a maze of tunnels, lit by sunlight penetrating from above. The eastern section of the reef has wider passageways with coral formations and scorpionfish hidden on the walls. Stay away from the tunnels in the northern section as many are dead-ends and impassable. The best plan here is to just set off and see what you can find.

St. John's Reef Basics: Tunnels, mazes and walls
Depth: 5 - >40m
Visibility: 15 - 30m
Currents: Can be strong
Surface conditions: Can be choppy
Water temperature: 23 - 30°C
Experience level: Intermediate - advanced
Number of dive sites: 8
Diving season: All year round
Distance: 230 km south southeast of Marsa Alam (14 hrs)
Access: Red sea liveaboards

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