Dive in The Brother Islands

Diving in The Brother Islands

Home to some of the best dives in the Red Sea, these two islands are a great place to see all different types of sharks such as the oceanic white tip, grey reef shark and schooling hammerheads.  The very rare thresher shark can sometimes be seen here too.  Declared a Marine Protected area in 1983, the islands are only accessible by liveaboard from Hurghada, Ras Galeb or Marsa Alam.

There are about 10 dives in the area including 2 wrecks.  You can also see barracudas, giant trevallies, shoals of tuna and sometimes a manta ray along with loads of colourful corals and reef fish.  The visibility is fantastic but the currents can be strong and you either need to be an advanced open water diver or have at least 50 logged dives to go diving here.

The Aida Wreck is 75 metres long and starts at 15m down to 45m deep and is covered in soft corals.  The Numidia Wreck is a 130m British cargo ship that sunk in 1901 and is positioned almost vertically on the reef and starts at 8m to a depth of 80m so exploring the whole wreck isn’t possible unless you’re a tech diver.  Grey reef sharks are common here.

Little Brother Island is almost round, about 100m in diameter and has stunning walls covered in pristine hard and soft corals.  The strong currents provide nutrient rich water making this a great place to see a myriad of different fish and lots of them.  Big Brother Island is 1 km from Little Brother and is 400m long and 60m wide.  The walls here are covered in huge gorgonian coral and big fish are everywhere including all those sharks we mentioned previously, making this a dive you’ll just want to keep going back to.  

Autumn and winter are the best times to see the thresher sharks.  Diving is great here all year round so be sure to take your camera and try to get that illusive thresher shark picture.  

(By Kelly Luckman)

Travel to The Brother Islands