Marsa Alam
Indian Ocean
Egypt
£2.50
Marsa Alam: The Original Mermaid
Legend has it that early sailors, after too many months at sea, looked overboard and mistook the Dugong for a mermaid. While it might be hard to see the resemblance today, the Dugong is indeed the "Siren" of the Red Sea. Marsa Alam is one of the very few places on the planet where you can snorkel with these shy, solitary creatures. Unlike the friendly Manatee, the Dugong is elusive and skittish, making an encounter here feel like a true privilege. It is a chance to swim with the animal that launched a thousand myths.
Why We Chose This Sticker Design
This design captures the "Mermaid" in its natural state: ignoring you to eat. We illustrated the Dugong with its snout buried deep in the seagrass, showcasing the unique, trunk-like upper lip it uses to vacuum up the seabed. Crucially, the design highlights the fluked, dolphin-like tail, which is the defining feature that likely tricked those sailors centuries ago. We also included the bright yellow Golden Trevally (pilot fish) that are constantly swimming in front of the Dugong’s face, hoping to catch scraps from the cloud of sand.
Diving Marsa Alam
Marsa Alam anchors the southern Egyptian Red Sea, and it trades Sharm's nightlife for quieter reefs and better big-animal odds. Dugongs graze the seagrass beds at Marsa Mubarak and Abu Dabbab, spinner dolphins rest in the lagoon at Samadai, and Elphinstone Reef sits a short boat ride offshore with its steep walls and reputation for oceanic whitetips. Much of the coast is diveable from shore, which keeps it flexible and affordable, and it is also the usual departure point for liveaboards heading further south.
- Best time to dive
- March to December; oceanic whitetips are most likely in autumn
- Difficulty
- Beginner on the bays, advanced at Elphinstone
- Water temperature
- 22–29°C
- Visibility
- 20–30m
Top dive sites
- •Elphinstone Reef — Offshore walls, current, and oceanic whitetips
- •Marsa Mubarak — Seagrass bay with a good chance of dugong
- •Abu Dabbab — Shallow shore dive known for turtles and dugong
- •Samadai Reef — Spinner dolphin resting lagoon — access is regulated
What you’ll see
Frequently asked questions
Where can I see dugongs in Marsa Alam?
Marsa Mubarak and Abu Dabbab are the two best-known bays, both shallow seagrass beds where dugongs come to feed and where snorkellers and divers regularly encounter them. Sightings are never guaranteed — these are wild animals ranging over a large area. Keep your distance and stay out of the animal’s path if you find one; crowding feeding dugongs disturbs them and, in busy periods, is the main reason they move away from a bay entirely.
Is Elphinstone Reef suitable for all divers?
No — it is an exposed offshore reef with walls dropping well past recreational limits and current that can run hard along both sides, so operators generally require Advanced Open Water and recent experience. The plateaux at either end sit around 20 to 30 metres and are where most of the action happens. Newer divers are far better served by the sheltered bays along the coast, which offer turtles, dugong and easy shore entries with none of the exposure.
