Gorgonia

Gorgonia Reef is an isolated submerged atoll (known in Arabic as shabrur, a reef whose summit remains permanently underwater) located in the Farasan Banks of the Saudi Red Sea, approximately 36 miles offshore and 2 miles south of Marmar Island. Elongated on a north–south axis, the reef rises from open water as a plateau sitting at 25 m depth, visible from the surface as a dark shadow in the blue.

The terrain opens on a broad southern plateau covered in grape coral formations and small, brightly coloured coral towers, with whip corals on the deeper second plateau at 45–50 m. The defining feature is the west wall, draped in a dense concentration of gorgonian fans from 30 m downward, alongside soft corals and alcyonarians — a landscape with no equivalent on the coastal reefs of the region. Maximum depth reaches 30 m on the main dive, with the second plateau extending to 45–50 m.

The reef holds strong pelagic life throughout: grey sharks and barracuda patrol the drop-off edge, trevally and jacks move in formation through the water column, and fusiliers sweep the plateau in tight schools. A resident school of barracuda holds position just above the reef top.