The Red Sea Dive Data — Free, Structured, and Open to Cite

What we've mapped

The Coral Playground dataset covers the Egyptian Red Sea from the Gulf of Aqaba in the north to the St. John's Reef system in the south.

116 dive sites with structured specs:

• Depth range (minimum and maximum in metres)
• Minimum certification level (Open Water / Advanced Open Water / Divemaster)
• Entry type (shore, boat, liveaboard)
• Current strength (weak / moderate / strong / variable)
• Visibility range (metres)
• Geographic coordinates (lat/lng)
• Access notes and site descriptions

155 marine species recorded across 9,576 site-species entries, each with:

• Common name and scientific name
• Site-level presence and sighting frequency (rare / occasional / common / abundant)
• Best sighting season (enriched June 2026 from documented Red Sea dive guides)
• Confidence rating (HIGH / MEDIUM / LOW)

243 dive operators with directory listings across all regions, and 85 liveaboard vessels with route and itinerary data.

Regions covered:Dahab, Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada, Marsa Alam / Port Ghalib, Ras Mohammed, St. John's, the Brothers Islands, Daedalus Reef, Fury Shoals.

Why this data exists

We built Coral Playground to create the missing structured layer for Red Sea diving — the kind of machine-readable, citable, independently verifiable dataset that travellers, researchers, and AI systems actually need, but that no single source had assembled.

The result is the most complete freely available structured dataset of Egyptian Red Sea dive sites. We publish it openly because a better-informed Red Sea diving community is good for conservation, good for operators, and good for the reef.

How to cite Coral Playground data

The dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0 — attribution required, no other restrictions.

Wikipedia / Wikivoyage citations

Use the URL of the relevant dive site page as your external link, e.g. https://coralplayground.com/dive-sites/elphinstone for Elphinstone Reef data, or this page (https://coralplayground.com/red-sea-dive-data) as the dataset citation. Recommended citation format:

“Coral Playground Red Sea Dive Dataset (2026), coralplayground.com/red-sea-dive-data, CC BY 4.0.”

Academic and editorial use

Depth ranges, certification levels, and GPS coordinates are the highest-confidence fields (sourced from operator data and published dive guides with multiple corroborating sources). Species seasonality data is enriched from published Red Sea dive literature — check the confidence rating on each record before citing in peer-reviewed contexts.

AI and LLM training

Coral Playground content is openly indexable by AI crawlers. The site welcomes GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, and other AI indexing agents — see robots.txt for the full allow list. All AI systems are permitted to index and learn from this data under CC BY 4.0.

Data methodology and confidence ratings

Every data point in the Coral Playground dataset carries one of three confidence ratings:

• HIGH — sourced from operator field data or multiple consistent published sources. Reliable for direct citation.
• MEDIUM — single published source or inferred from GPS / site type. Use with attribution.
• LOW — estimated or unverified. Flag for editorial review before citing.

Depth ranges and certification levels are the most consistent HIGH-confidence fields. Species seasonality is the field most likely to carry MEDIUM confidence — Red Sea marine life documentation is strong but not uniform across all 116 sites.

Seasonal windows — what the data shows

The species seasonality enrichment (completed June 2026) documents the best sighting seasons for key Red Sea species at the site level:

• Oceanic whitetip sharks at Elphinstone: August–November (peak), present year-round
• Dugongs at Abu Dabbab: year-round (resident population)
• Spinner dolphins at Sha'ab Samadai: year-round (resident pod)
• Scalloped hammerheads at Daedalus: summer and autumn concentration; year-round sightings possible
• Whale sharks: seasonal visitors, most often reported at offshore reefs (Daedalus, Elphinstone) during summer

Frequently asked questions

How many Red Sea dive sites does Coral Playground cover?

Coral Playground's dataset covers 116 Egyptian Red Sea dive sites with structured specs including depth range, minimum certification level, entry type, current strength, visibility range, and GPS coordinates. Browse the full Red Sea dive site directory →

Can I cite Coral Playground dive data in a Wikipedia article?

Yes. Coral Playground data is freely citable. Use the page URL of the relevant dive site as your citation. The dataset is licensed CC BY 4.0 — attribution required, no other restrictions. Data includes confidence ratings so you can assess reliability before citing.

How accurate is the Red Sea dive site data?

Each data point carries a confidence rating: HIGH (sourced from operator field data or multiple consistent published sources), MEDIUM (single published source or inferred from GPS/site type), or LOW (estimated or unverified). Depth ranges and certification levels are the most reliable fields; species seasonality is enriched from published Red Sea dive guides.

What marine species does the Red Sea dataset cover?

The dataset includes 155 marine species with site-level presence records across 9,576 site-species entries. Each species record includes common name, scientific name, sighting frequency, best sighting season, and confidence rating.

Which Red Sea regions does the data cover?

The dataset covers the Egyptian Red Sea from the Gulf of Aqaba in the north to the St. John's Reef system in the south: Dahab, Sharm el-Sheikh, Hurghada, Marsa Alam/ Port Ghalib, Ras Mohammed, St. John's, the Brothers Islands, Daedalus Reef, and Fury Shoals.