Farasan Banks & Al Lith · Saudi Arabia · Reef · Pelagic & blue water
Shib Habil
Juvenile whale sharks gather here every spring, in groups of two to four
Shib Habil is a shallow reef platform off the coastal shelf in the Al Lith area, crested at about 8 m and shelving to 25 m on its sheltered side and roughly 80 m on the exposed one. Between March and May juvenile whale sharks gather over it to feed on plankton blooms, usually in groups of two to four and occasionally as many as ten. Outside that window it is a plain coastal reef.
Also known as Shi'b Habil.
Where it is and how deep
20.1132° N, 40.2210° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
Dives here work around the animals rather than along a fixed route. The reef crests at about 8 m and the sheltered side shelves down to 25 m, so the scuba part of the day is a straightforward reef dive along the platform edge, comfortably inside recreational limits. The whale sharks, though, feed high in the water on seasonal blooms of crustacean zooplankton, and most encounters happen in the top few metres off the reef rather than down on the coral.
Groups are small. Two to four animals is the usual sighting, occasionally as many as ten, and they are mostly juveniles of 3 to 7 m with an average length around 4 m, in roughly equal numbers of males and females. A feeding shark holds near the surface and moves slowly, which is what makes the encounters last. Stay off its line and let it come past on its own terms rather than swimming at it.
The exposed face of the platform is a different proposition, falling away to around 80 m, and depth is easy to lose track of over water with no bottom in sight. Agree a maximum before you go in and work the crested part of the reef unless the briefing says otherwise. The season is short and it is worth planning around: the aggregation runs March through May and the animals are largely gone from July onward.
Background
Between April 2010 and May 2016 researchers ran an array of 63 acoustic receiver stations at Shib Habil, recording 84 tagged sharks, taking identification photographs of 76 individuals and fitting 38 with satellite transmitters. The work established the reef as the only site in the Indian Ocean that regularly attracts large numbers of juvenile female whale sharks, and concluded the aggregation meets all the criteria of a shark nursery. The whale shark was declared endangered in 2016, and all sharks are protected from fishing in Saudi Arabian waters.
Marine life and season
- Whale sharks
- Manta rays
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Good | Good | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Farasan Banks & Al Lith: Whale sharks aggregate at Shib Habil Mar–May; midsummer surface temperatures above 40°C make the region impractical.
Know before you go
- The exposed side of the reef drops to about 80 m with nothing to reference against, so set a hard maximum depth before the dive and stay over the crested platform.
Questions divers ask
When can you see whale sharks at Shib Habil?+
The aggregation runs March to May, when the animals gather to feed on seasonal blooms of crustacean zooplankton. Acoustic monitoring found more than 98% of shark detections fell in the first half of the year, and the sharks are largely absent from July to December.
How deep is the diving at Shib Habil?+
The reef crests at about 8 m and the sheltered side bottoms out at 25 m, which keeps the diving inside recreational limits. The exposed side of the platform falls away to roughly 80 m.
How big are the whale sharks at Shib Habil?+
Tagged animals measured 3 to 7 m in total length, averaging about 4 m (females 4.1 m, males 3.9 m). All the tagged sharks were juveniles, and the sex ratio was close to even: 35 females and 37 males among the 84 sharks monitored, with 12 undetermined.
Sources
- Shib Habil ISRA - Important Shark Ray Areas — Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRA)
- Whale shark residency, distribution and dispersal at a Red Sea aggregation site — PLOS ONE
- Shi'b Habil — Wikidata
- Shi'b Habil (reef) — OpenStreetMap node 11871651904, source GNS — OpenStreetMap / U.S. NGA GEOnet Names Server
In The Logbook
- Where to dive in every month of the yearTrip planning · 14 min read
- Where to dive with whale sharks, month by monthBig animals · 16 min read
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