Brother Islands Egypt – The iconic dive site of the Red Sea

Fishing for your next diving  trip? What are you looking for? Pelagic sharks? Wrecks? Beautiful, pristine reefs with colourful corals and reef fish? A remote place? Drift dives? Walls? How about all of that? At a single dive site? Well, even on a single dive? Welcome to the Brother Islands, Red Sea, Egypt!

The Brother Islands (or El Achawein) are considered one of the best dive spots in the world.

The two small offshore islands in the Red Sea are located around 60-70km from the coast at Al Qusair. „Big Brother“ is around 400m long. „Little Brother“, which is about 1km away, is less than half this size. They were declared natural protectorates in 1983, which granted them marine park status.

Photos by Christian Horras

 

This protection and the fact that the area can only be reached via liveaboard results in a very healthy coral reef and the presence of pelagic sharks, especially the curious oceanic whitetip shark. There are also two wrecks: „Aida“ and „Numidia“, which somehow managed to crash into the Big Brother in the middle of the Red Sea, although there is a lighthouse (built by the British in 1883, still in use today!).

Together with the often impressive visibility of the Red Sea, it makes a „complete“ dive site. You can start at the wreck of the „Numidia“ on the the north of Big Brother, then drift along a wall, enjoying the colorful corals with lots of reef fish, and upon getting back to the boat, some oceanic whitetips patrolling between the different liveaboards might be already waiting for you and come close to check you out! So you can have it all in one single dive: wrecks, reef, wall, drift dive, pelagic sharks!

 

How to get to the Brother Islands in Egypt and when is the best time to go?

As it is a several hours trip from the ports of Hurghada or Port Ghalib, most liveaboards will make the crossing during the night and arrive early in the morning, so you can have the full day to dive at Brother Islands. Since 2018 it is not allowed to stay more than one day and the liveaboards will leave in the afternoon, as night dives are also prohibited due to the marine park status.

High season is usually from May to December. During summer, conditions on the surface are often calmer, but as water temperature decreases in autumn and winter the sharks will come to shallower waters, so I would personally choose October or November.

 

Diving at the Brother Islands

There are various possibilities for your day diving the Brother Islands: it will depend on what you (and the other divers) want to do (or see) and it will also depend on the weather conditions.

 

1. Sharks

Often, you can see the first sharks before even hitting the water. After arriving with the liveaboard, the curious oceanic whitetips will start to „patrol“ around the boat. You can see the iconic white tips on the fins that they are named after.

On the south of Big Brother there is a plateau with a cleaning station at about 30 to 40m (100-130ft) depth. An early morning dive provides a good chance to see the rare and iconic thresher shark. This is an opportunity you should not miss! 

When on the reef, always keep an eye out into the blue. There are often hammerhead sharks passing by!

If you want to encounter the oceanic whitetips you have good chances to see them in shallow depths between the moored liveaboards. If your dive ends back at the liveaboard, the safety stop is a good possibility for an encounter. But be aware: they tend to „sneak“ up on you, often from behind! So always check your back! If you encounter a oceanic whitetip, some rules and guidelines:

• Stay calm
• Choose an upright position in the water, so you appear to be „larger“
• Always maintain eye-contact with the shark
• Stay together as a group, don’t swim away from your buddies
• Don’t swim on the surface. Stay at a depth of at least 2-3m (6-10ft)
• Enjoy! They are very graceful animals and as their population is highly endangered nobody knows how often you will be able to see them in the future. It is a real privilege to encounter them!

Another great spot in Egypt for encountering oceanic white tips and hammerhead sharks is Elphinstone Reef.

 

2. Wrecks

There are two wrecks, both located on the North-East side of Big Brother: Aida and Numidia. 

The Numidia was a British cargo ship, around 130m/425ft long. She hit the reef in 1901 on its way to India. Today the wreck lies between 8m and 90m (26 and 295 ft), so the stern is far beyond recreational diving limits. The wreck is beautifully grown with colourful soft corals and on the top it is almost impossible to distinguish between wreck and reef! For me, this is a „must“ dive at Brother Islands!

The Aida hit the reef in 1957. The 75m/246ft ship was about to deliver goods for the staff of the lighthouse. Now it lies in depths of 25m to 65m (82 to 213ft), also covered in corals. The bow is destroyed but you can access the engine room and the hold at about 35m/115ft depth.

 

3. Reef

The reef life is absolutely stunning on both Big Brother and Little Brother. All sides are covered in hard and soft corals and you would hardly spot an area that is not overgrown with corals. Even the two wrecks are covered in corals! You will find all the reef fish you know from the reefs in Egypt, especially a lot of anthias. Sometimes turtles visit the reef. The shallow parts of the reef consist of big formations of hard corals, mostly table coral. 

 

Underwater photography at the Brother Islands Egypt

Make sure your camera batteries and strobes are fully charged as you will have a lot of opportunities for good shots! The Brother Islands are a „wide angle territory“. For shots of the wrecks, corals and reef, I would choose a fisheye lens. For the sharks, it is also a good choice as the oceanic whitetips tend to come very close. But a wide angle-zoom lens is also suitable, especially for hammerhead and thresher sharks that often do not come as close. For shots of the various soft corals I personally prefer Little Brother, as it is a bit more beautifully grown in my opinion.

Big Brother provides an excellent opportunity for a classic split shot with the iconic lighthouse and the reef in one shot. For this type of shot, I would choose a fisheye lens and a large dome port, which makes it a lot easier.

 

For anyone who loves capturing their underwater memories but takes it easy on the photo equipment, I can recommend the DIVEVOLK SeaTouch 4 Max smartphone housing. This little case is a true game-changer, as it fits to literally any smartphone brand and model and is waterproof up to 60m/200ft. The best part though is that it has a full touchscreen membrane and you can access all of your apps underwater. This is particularly neat for taking photos and videos as you can also use third party apps, which allow you to adjust the white balance and colour temperature while shooting. This makes the overall quality of your footage better and reduces your editing efforts.

For a thorough exploration of the potential of this revolutionary accessory, check out our in-depth review here!

 

A word of caution

Diving at the Brother Islands can be challenging, even for advanced divers! You need to have at least 50 dives to be allowed to dive there. The currents can be strong and conditions on the surface can be rough, too. Also it is often quite busy at the surface with a lot of zodiacs.

You should feel comfortable with a negative entry and getting back into the zodiac, often done by taking off your gear in the water before handing everything to the crew and then climbing into the zodiac. It is highly recommended to do this one by one, because the oceanic whitetips are very interested in everything on the surface and will often check what’s going on when the divers are getting back into the zodiac. Combined with currents and waves this can cause quite some stress for inexperienced divers.

Also be sure to watch your depth and decompression limits! It is a remote place and the next decompression chamber is at least 6 hours away. 

 

About the author

Christian Horras is an underwater photographer from Germany. He has always been fascinated by the beautiful, rich colours of coral reefs and admired underwater photos from the first time he saw them. 

After becoming a certified diver in 2013, he decided to buy his first camera and underwater housing in 2015 to show his friends and family at home the beauty of a world that many of them had never experienced. 

Underwater photography quickly became a true passion for him and sharing his own fascination for the underwater world is still his biggest motivation. 

You can see more of his work on his website.