Diving St John's and Fury Shoals

A forest of coral pinnacles to swim around in the south-east corner of the reef. Turn the corner with the reef on your right and you find a wall. Here there are swim-throughs and caverns - very pretty. Look for delicate sea fans in the overhangs. Abounding with mountains of porites hard coral in pale olive and blue. A dive for everyone.

Porites coral at Paradise Reef. Photo credit: JS

A small oval reef. You'll probably be dropped at one end to swim round one side of the reef back to the boat. It plateaus between 3 and 7 m from the surface and has fairly steep sided walls.

Wall of coral, Habili Ali. Photo credit: JS

The dive comprises reef walls and plateaus. Lovely soft corals, shoals of fish and often a Hawksbill turtle. Kebir means big and this is one of the largets reefs in the St John's area at 250m long and 120m wide..

Coral close-up at Gota Kebir. Photo credit: JS

Also spelled Habilie Jafar. A beautiful pinnacle dive. The pinnacle reaches to within 5 or 6 metres from the surface and drops to over 60 m. At 40 m the drop-off steepens. Look down here and you might see white tip sharks.

You can circle around the pinnacle gradually rising to finish the dive at the reef top. An octopus lives on the top of the reef with pixie hawkfish sitting nearby waiting for crumbs from the octopus's table. Barracuda also lurk nearby.

The current is most often from the North

Octopus and Pixie Hawkfish on Habili Gaffar, St Johns. Photo credit: JS

The name means small and with good air consumption this is another one you can swim completely around. But it is a lot of finning with any sort of current. A better plan is to go in at one side of this circular reef - the north if this is the direction from which the current is coming - and drift back to the south.

Look for a fan coral garden running between 20 and 6 m on the east side. The reef almost touches the surface and at its shallowest part in the south has crevices cutting in.

Gota Soraya reef, St Johns. Photo credit: JS

Dive in and out of swim-throughs and caves. Many juvenile fish with the bonus of a resident Napoleon Wrasse which likes to investigate divers. Octopus in holes. A good spot for night diving.

This is a really lovely dive. Loads of fish: blackfin dart fish, juvenile golden trevally trying to be a pilot fish, goat fish, parrotfish galore right up to tuna and eagle ray. And of course - lots of dophins on the surface. At the south eastern tip of Fury shoal. Best dived from a liveaboard but can be done by boat from Marsa Alam. This is a horseshoe-shaped reef enclosing several pinacles in a coral garden. The outer edge of the horseshoe is deep and the inner shallow.

The dolphins of Dolphin Reef. Photo credit: JS

Malahi means playground, and it is like a playground for divers. Everywhere there are swim-throughs and coral pillars and outcrops to swim in and out of. This is made from a collapsed reef. Maximum depth 14 m. The north side has some especially nice formations of hard corals. Home to a grumpy turtle which as been known to bite people. Plenty of squirrelfish - Crown and Bloodspot (Neoniphon sammara)

Coral at Malahi. Photo credit: JS

Another great dive. Cathedrals of corals in the west. Massive dome corals - Porites nodifera. Large giant morays. Admire the magnificent corals in the south then turn right into swim-throughs and caves. Interesting tall yellow sponges, nudibranchs and some beautiful Brain coral, Platygyra daedalea. Another good place for a night dive where the basket stars are out and moving around plus tiny shrimp, coral crabs, hermit crabs and other invertebrates.

Two plateaus at the north and south ends. Pinnacles on the south plateau are covered in soft corals. The south plateau starts at 18 m and slopes down to 35 m. Look out for white tip reef sharks and grey reef sharks here. (Like whitetip reef sharks, grey reef sharks have a white end to their dorsal fin, but they have a black edge to their tails.) You might also see a Napoleon (Maori) wrasse, hawksbill turtle and nudibranchs. Current is often north to south.