Brothers & Daedalus · Egypt · Wall · Pinnacle
Little Brother Island
Great hammerheads rise from the deep for a look, then drop away
Photo: Johan Lantz, Malmö SWEDEN · CC BY-SA 3.0
Little Brother is the smaller of the two Brother pinnacles, a wall dive with sheer drops on all sides roughly 60 km off the Egyptian coast. The reef slopes very slowly away from the island before dropping to a deep plateau at 40 m, and grey reef sharks, oceanic whitetips, threshers and hammerheads work the water around it depending on the season.
Also known as Small Brother.
Where it is and how deep
26.2981° N, 34.8556° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
Three patterns are used here. The northern plateau is the shark dive, where the group holds position in the current and watches open water. The walls on both sides are run as drifts. And the southern tip, where the moorings are, is dived as a circulation around the point. Which of the three you get depends on the current the boat finds that morning.
On the wall dives the reef slopes very slowly away from the island before dropping to a deep plateau at 40 m, which leaves a shallow shelf to work back onto at the end. Grey reef sharks are the most regular company, with oceanic whitetips, thresher sharks and hammerheads appearing by season; great hammerheads sometimes rise from the deep for a quick inspection before descending into the blue again.
Closer in, grouper, napoleon wrasse, anthias and schooling snapper and barracuda hold the reef itself. Current is often strong and can change strength within a single dive, so groups stay tight to the guide and carry a surface marker buoy for a pickup off the reef. Night diving is not permitted at this site.
Marine life and season
- Reef sharks
- Oceanic whitetips
- Thresher sharks
- Hammerheads
- Napoleon wrasse
- Groupers
- Barracuda
- Reef fish swarms
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Brothers & Daedalus: Boats run the offshore route from March to December; schooling hammerheads peak at Daedalus from June to August.
Know before you go
- Downwellings, sudden vertical currents that push divers deeper, have been reported here; move out away from the wall and rebuild buoyancy rather than finning up against the water.
- Current is often strong and can change strength during a single dive, so a plan agreed on the surface may not survive the descent.
Photos from Little Brother Island
Alexander Vasenin · CC BY-SA 3.0
Johanlantz at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
Johan Lantz, Malmö SWEDEN, 2006 (Johanlantz at English Wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 3.0
Dive videos
Diving Little brother island Egypt with lots of colorful fish · Somogyi Martin on YouTube
Questions divers ask
How deep is Little Brother?+
The reef slopes very slowly away from the island before dropping to a deep plateau at 40 m, with sheer wall on all sides. Most dives work the wall and the plateau edge rather than going deeper than that.
What sharks can you see at Little Brother?+
Grey reef sharks are the most regular. Oceanic whitetips, thresher sharks and hammerheads all appear depending on the season, and great hammerheads sometimes rise from the deep for a quick inspection before descending again.
Sources
- Little Brother – Red Sea Diving Marine Park Dive Sites — Red Sea Diving Marine Park
- Brother Islands Diving, Red Sea - Egypt — Dive The World
- El Ikhwa Islands — Wikipedia
Photo credits
- An oceanic whitetip shark cruising with a pilot fish riding beside its head by Johan Lantz, Malmö SWEDEN, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Liveaboard dive boats anchored beside the low rocky islet of Little Brother by Alexander Vasenin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- A silky shark swimming in clear blue water off the reef by Johanlantz at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- A silky shark seen side-on cruising over the drop-off by Johan Lantz, Malmö SWEDEN, 2006 (Johanlantz at English Wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In The Logbook
- Malapascua thresher sharks: Monad or Kimud?Big animals · 11 min read
- Where to dive with oceanic whitetip sharksBig animals · 11 min read
- When and where to dive with hammerheadsBig animals · 16 min read
More dive sites in Brothers & Daedalus
Wreck
Intact superstructure on a hull that stands almost vertical
Sheer wall, constant current and two ships draped down the same rock
A 20 m-wide ridge to 60 m off Big Brother's shark-patrolled point
A lighthouse on a seamount that climbs from 450 metres of water
Railway wheels at 8 m on a hull that runs down to 80 m
Similar dives elsewhere
Two plateaus on the Red Sea's only atoll, hammerheads at 45 m
A coral tower that opens into a cave at 28 m
Grey reefs and hammerheads off an exposed pinnacle
Mother of Sharks: hammerheads and tigers on a lone pinnacle