El Fanadir South

Fanadir is a long narrow reef just north of Hurghada. It can be dived on the south end, on the east side or in good weather, on the north end. The illustration shows the east side, which is the most popular as it is protected from the weather by a slight curve in the reef. It is marked by 4 low lying rocky islets. A shallow hard coral wall slopes (at about 60°) to a sandy ledge at 12m. This sandy ledge is about 50m wide and narrows as you head northwards. At 20-25m, it drops off to greater depth.

Sea Conditions: Current comes from the north and is usually mild. The south end and east side are protected from northerly or northwesterly winds (most of the time).

Dive Plan: The drop-off is naturally sandy, devoid of coral and fairly depressing. Don't waste your time here, you should be shallow, heading out at 12-15m and returning at 3-4m. In fact, the shallower the better. There is a small but very photogenic coral block at 14m and just north of the islets. It has glassfish, cardinal fish, soft corals, etc. and usually a resident stonefish. 100m north of here are some impressive gorgonians.

Marine Life: This place is crawling with pipefish. They must provide food for the stonefish, scorpionfish and hump-back scorpionfish which abound. If you had to choose any one site to look for stonefish, this should be it. Near the surface is teeming with silversides and occasionally small packs of tuna and jacks cruise by hunting them. Other residents include snowflake morays, yellow mouth morays, octopus and lots of lionfish. There have also been reports of frogfish, guitar sharks, mantas, and even a hammerhead at this site.