Overview
Shaab Sabina has a living side and a dead one. Nutrient-rich water reaches the north face of the main reef wall and it is covered accordingly, while the south face of the same wall is effectively bare. North of the main reef a maze of ridges and ergs breaks the bottom into the most complicated ground on the site, and a coral garden runs off to the northwest. Boats moor on the south side of a tongue of reef that reaches out to the east. It shares a mooring with Erg Sabina: the boat stays on the same line for both dives and the two groups swim in opposite directions.
Dive plan
The site runs as a natural drift. Entry is over the coral garden, which cascades from the top of the reef down to the seabed at 14 m, and the route from there works through a labyrinth of coral formations with light off the surface moving across white sand patches between them. South of that maze stands the wall of the main reef, sloping from 8 to 10 m up toward the surface. Hard corals grow on top of one another along it, and the two faces are worth comparing directly: the north side carries the growth, the south side does not.
What to see
The landscape is the main feature here, and the hard coral formations are what the photographers come for. Big porcupinefish and giant pufferfish rest on the sand between the ergs, along with several kinds of ray. Stonefish are common enough that failing to find one counts as bad luck.
Dive sites nearby
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