Shark & Yolanda Reef

Overview

Shark & Yolanda is the signature dive of Ras Mohammed National Park and one of the great wall drifts of the Red Sea — a single dive that strings together two towering reefs, a fish-packed plateau and a scattered cargo wreck. The reefs rise from deep water at the very tip of the Sinai Peninsula, where the waters of the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba meet and funnel nutrient-rich current past the walls. On a good day the volume of fish here is genuinely overwhelming.

The Dive

This is a drift, almost always run from Shark Reef across to Yolanda. Shark Reef is a sheer wall that plunges thousands of metres into the blue — charts mark the drop at close to 800m — so depth here is governed entirely by your dive plan, not the bottom: a typical recreational profile hugs the wall between about 15m and 30m, with 40m a sensible cap for those going deeper along the face. A coral saddle then links Shark Reef to the broad Yolanda plateau, which sits in the 15–25m range and is studded with pinnacles swarming in anthias and snapper. The finale is the wreckage of the Yolanda — fallen cargo including the famous bathroom suite of toilets, bathtubs and a BMW — scattered across the plateau in easy recreational depths.

Current is the headline condition and can be strong, occasionally with summer down-currents along the wall, which is why this is an Advanced Open Water dive. Stay close to the reef, watch your depth on the wall, and let the drift do the work.

Marine Life

The fish life is the reason you come. Dense walls of barracuda and batfish, schooling jacks and snapper, Napoleon wrasse, moray eels and turtles are near-guaranteed, while reef sharks, grey reef sharks and the occasional pelagic cruise the edge of the blue. Spring and early summer bring the biggest aggregations, when the plateau can disappear behind a curtain of fish.

Good to Know

Diving is year-round, with April to June and September to November offering the best mix of warm water and big schools; visibility commonly runs 20–30m and can be exceptional. Access is by day boat from Sharm El Sheikh — usually 45–60 minutes — or as a stop on northern liveaboard routes. As a protected national park, strict no-touch and no-glove rules apply, and the strong, changeable current means this is a dive to respect rather than underestimate.