Sharm El Sheikh (Ras Mohammed and Tiran)

Core Safety Habits

• Choose CDWS-registered operators and listen to the full site and pickup briefing before every dive or snorkel.
• Treat the surface phase seriously. On exposed drifts, where you surface matters as much as where you descend.
• Carry and know how to deploy a DSMB if your certification and local procedures call for it.
• Be conservative with air, narcosis, and task loading on stronger current days.
• Do not push depth because visibility looks inviting. Thomas and other Tiran reefs can tempt divers deeper than the actual plan.

Health and Fitness

• Dive well hydrated and shaded, especially from May to September.
• Do not stack hard mountain or desert days directly after a heavy dive schedule.
• Respect no-fly guidance after diving and ask your operator for a chamber-first plan if symptoms appear.

Sharm has one of the better diver-medical setups in the northern Red Sea. CDWS lists the Sharm Hyperbaric Medical Centre in Sharm El Maya by the Travco Jetty as the primary chamber contact, with Sharm Hospital nearby as a general emergency back-up. Reputable boats should carry oxygen and emergency procedures that match CDWS standards. If there is any concern about decompression illness, pulmonary barotrauma, or unusual post-dive neurological symptoms, call the chamber immediately rather than waiting to see if it passes.

Ras Mohammed has been protected since 1983, and the reef rules are simple even if visitors sometimes forget them.

• No touching, standing on, or collecting coral, shells, or marine life.
• No fish feeding and no aggressive wildlife chasing for photos.
• Stay on marked land routes and roads inside the park.
• Prefer operators following Green Fins style best practice, proper mooring use, and low-plastic boat habits.
• Good buoyancy is conservation. Most reef damage here comes from contact, not intent.

The destination still feels special because the rules exist and, when operators enforce them properly, they work.