UAE east coast diving

Welcome to this page. It is dedicated to scuba diving in the Gulf of Oman on the east coast of the United Arab Emirates. If you're not familiar with this country, it is in the Middle East, south of Saudi Arabia on the Persian Gulf. It has about 100 kms of coastline on the Gulf of Oman. The three major towns on its east coast are Dibba, Khorfakkan and Fujairah.

On the page you'll see images of sea life in the Gulf of Oman and read descriptions of various dive sites. In addition there are e-mail addresses of scuba divers in the UAE and information about my two favorite east coast dive centers.

	The Gulf of Oman is part of the Arabian Sea which is part of the Indian Ocean. It is teeming with a great variety of sea life in amazing quantities. You'll encounter Moray eels, barracudas, groupers, rays, clown fish, angel fish, parrot fish, trigger fish, cuttle fish, lion fish and Picasso fish on almost every dive.
	In addition to the above, turtles, lobsters, spade fish, and countless other species are seen in an environment of huge rocks, colorful coral and abundant marine vegetation. The water is comfortable year round and there are many uncrowded beautiful dive sites.
	If you don't have your own boat you'll need to go to a dive center. My favorites are the Seven Seas and the Sandy Beach. They are both very professional, safe and have well-maintained rental equipment, fast boats and clean air. Their prices are diver friendly, too!

The Seven Seas Diving Center is in Khorfakkan. It was opened by Mohammed S. Ibrahim in 1995. Mohammed is one of the first UAE nationals to become a certified instructor. He was born and raised in Khorfakkan and is very familiar with the sea and its creatures. When you dive with Mohammed you'll be impressed by his love of the sea and respect for the environment. (Tel: 971-9-387400 Fax: 971-9-387440 e-mail: diving@emirates.net.ae)

The Sandy Beach Diving Center is 18 kilometers north of Khorfakkan. Gunter "Herman" Hormann opened the SBDC in 1992 and has established a good reputation among local and international divers. Besides being an accomplished dive manager and instructor, Herman is also an excellent U/W photographer, as evidenced by his photos on this page. Diving at the Sandy Beach is always a pleasure. (Tel: 971-9-445050 Fax: 971-9-445-900 e-mail: sbdiving@emirates.net.ae)

Popular Dive Sites

• Ras Dibba: Steep rock formation 25 minutes north of Sandy Beach. Depth 3-15 meters with lots of hard coral, turtles, rays, Moray eels, and shoal fish.
• Snoopy Island: See picture above, just off Sandy Beach. Ideal for day and night shore dives. Depth 5-14 meters, plenty of things to see.
• Rock Piles: Just south of Sandy Beach about 100 meters offshore. Turtles, crabs, lobsters and all kinds of fish live at this site.
• Car Cemetery: About 20 minutes north of Khorfakkan. Hundreds of wrecked cars and trucks on the bottom attract barracuda, jacks, rays and other fish in huge numbers. You might find that '59 Studebaker you've been looking for.
• Shark Island: Don't let the name scare you, this is a friendly site near Khorfakkan harbor. Excellent place for U/W photography.
• Coral Garden: Deep dive site, 24-30 meters not far from Shark Island. Dense gorgonias and horn coral teeming with nudibranches, lobster, trumpet fish and Moray eels. For advanced divers.
• Hole-In-The-Wall: This is a shallow dive featuring a dive through cave. Anemones and interesting rock formations.
• Martini Rock: This very popular site is just a few minutes south of Khorfakkan. A huge U/W rock formation reaching nearly to the surface. Just about any fish found in the Indian Ocean may be observed.
• Musandam: If you travel along the coast north of Dibba, you find youself in Omani waters. This is a remote area with countless fantastic dive sites waiting to be explored. Both dive centers mentioned above offer exciting dive trips to Musandam.

E-mail links to divers in the UAE: (This list can be used for UAE divers to communicate with each other and for divers in other countries to contact UAE divers.)

mderro@hct.ac.ae Mark, mcross@hct.ac.ae Mike, alixbob@emirates.net.ae Bob,

abill@hct.ac.ae Anthony, goldeni@emirates.net.ae Forzad,

moossen@emirates.net.ae Heiko, kokullis@emirates.net.ae George

Other Scuba Web Pages: Larry Jenkins of New York has kindly added a link to this page on his excellent page. You'll find lots of interesting info, links to other pages and even jokes. http://www.scubaduba.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are a scuba diver in the UAE, I'd like to add your e-mail address to the list above. If you have had an exciting diving adventure on the east coast and would like to share it with others I'll put it on this page. Finally, if you live outside the UAE and would like to know more about diving here, contact me or any of the above divers. We'd like to hear from you. Happy diving!

This page hosted by