Sharm El-Sheikh Diving: A Green Listed Park, 109 Operators

What the park is, in the decrees that made it

Ras Mohammed sits at the southern tip of Sinai, next to the town, and it is the oldest protected area of its kind in Egypt. The Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency sets out the sequence: the park “was declared in 1983 by the Prime Ministerial Decree 1068 including only the tip of South Sinai Peninsula of almost 96 km2 in addition to Tiran and Sanafir Islands”, and it “has been expanded in its size in 1989 by the Prime Ministerial Decree 2035 to incorporate much of the surrounding waters and territory to enclose 480 km2”.

The machinery behind that is worth a sentence because it explains why Egyptian protection is decree-shaped: “Law No.102 of 1983 provides the legal framework for the establishment of protected areas throughout Egypt. These protected areas are designated by Prime Minister's Decrees upon recommendations of the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency”. A park here is an instrument of national government, not a local arrangement.

That document is a business plan from January 2008, so treat its operational parts as history. The decrees and the areas are the durable part, and they are what we quote.

What the Green List assessment actually measured

In 2018 the park was added to the IUCN Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, receiving its certificate “at a ceremony in the reserve on 24th November, 2018”. The process is the interesting part: “A regional Expert Assessment Group evaluated the site against 50 indicators, including good governance, effective management, sound design and planning, and delivery of conservation results.”

Three figures from the same source give a sense of what is being managed. “Over 340 km2 of seas are completely no-take, including the reef area as well as the large upwelling of deep water”. The reefs “are regularly monitored and show up to 90% live coral cover in some areas, with an average of over 65%”. And “There are over 210 species of corals, including a high diversity of soft coral species.”

Set that against the way most dive destinations describe themselves and the difference is not the adjectives, it is that somebody counted. A no-take area with a measured coral cover and a published assessment is a different kind of claim from “pristine”.

And now the part nobody assessed

The Sharm El-Sheikh operator list holds 109 businesses, read on 13 September 2026. 101 carry an Egyptian licence number from the Chamber of Diving and Water Sports, which says the business is registered to trade and, as we set out on the Hurghada page, nothing at all about how it dives. 15 appear in the SSI register of affiliated centres and one in IKO's.

Three carry a Green Fins assessment, which is the only check in this industry where a trained assessor turns up in person and scores the business against a published standard:

• Camel Dive Club & Hotel, Certified Gold Member
• Story Divers, Certified Silver Member
• Reef Oasis Dive Club, Certified Bronze Member

Three of 109 is 2.8 per cent, and it is not a local failing. Across the eight Egyptian towns we compile, 380 businesses in total, the assessment reaches 13. Marsa Alam, a fraction of the size, holds 8 of those 13. Hurghada, with 90 businesses, holds none.

So the summary of Sharm is a split screen. The water is protected to a standard somebody audited. The businesses on it are mostly checked only by the registration that lets them trade. Neither cancels the other, and the useful move is to ask a shop directly whether it is in the Green Fins register and, if not, what it does about moorings, briefings and reef contact. The three above have an answer on file.

Getting in, and the rule that works in your favour here

Sharm is the one Egyptian dive town with an entry rule that can save you a visa. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office states it for its own travellers: “If you are arriving by air to Sharm El-Sheikh and staying for less than 15 days at resorts in Sharm El Sheikh, Dahab, Nuweiba or Taba, you do not need a visa.”

Two things to read carefully in that sentence. It is tied to arriving by air at Sharm, and it covers South Sinai resorts only, fly into Hurghada or take a trip across to the mainland coast and you are outside it. The ordinary routes, costs and passport validity are set out on our Hurghada guide. The rules differ by nationality; check yours before you fly.

How to use the Sharm operator list

With 109 records the value is not the number, it is that each one shows what is behind it: a licence number you can quote, a register entry you can open, an assessment where one exists, and an explicit blank where we have nothing. If you are weighing Egyptian bases rather than businesses, Sharm vs Hurghada sets the two largest side by side, with the counts that matter separated from each other.