Trip Report Red Sea Aggressor V - Deep South - Sept 2025

[Triple C]

Just finished a trip with them and here are my thoughts. Overall, I'd give it a C+ or B-. I had a good time, I felt safe aboard and a lot of the diving was nice. But there was nothing remarkable about the diving, the boat, the crew or the food.

I saw not a single shark, no big fish (though another group of our divers rolled off on top of a whale shark. My bad luck). We did snorkel extensively with dolphins one day, though the other hundred divers there took some of the magic out of that. On the best reef, maybe 50% of the coral was healthy. On the worst, 90% was dead. There were lots of dramatic pinnacles, swim throughs and walls which were great, but when so much of the coral is dead and covered with algae, it really spoils it for me. I think newer divers don't know what a healthy reef looks like, so they were pleased with the seascapes and abundant small fish. I looked at the reefs and thought " I should have been here 30 years ago".

There is some confusion about the age of the Aggressor V. I think their website said "new in 2025" but I think that means new to them. It may been renovated and added to their fleet in 2025 but there is no way she was new. The crew said she was Egyptian built around 2020. That seems more like it. My cabin was great, spacious with good air con, but several others had aircon problems and slept in different salons to stay cool. That was bad. My cabin had a smoke detector, a fire extinguisher and a tool to break the window. They had O2 aboard and a defib.

The boat was spacious and in v good condition overall. There were 2 nice sized salons with air con, plus the dining room. Dining room got uncomfortably hot during most meals. It was a weird room with tables that were too high, so you felt like you were kind of in a highchair. You had to stand up to reach the condiments in the center. And the chairs were weird, with legs that stuck out at 45* angles, meaning that everyone stubbed their toes daily. Really, wth?

The food was like your school cafeteria. I was really disappointed. On the plus side, no one got sick and there was plenty of beer aboard.

Nitrox ranged from 29 - 31%. Fills were between 3 -3200 psi. We dove off the fantail and from Zodiacs. The Zodiacs were for drift dives back to the boat. We never had to get in the Zodiacs with gear.

I dove with a great group from all around the world - 5 Chinese, 5 Poles, 2 UK, 1 Japanese, 2 Egyptians, 3 Americans, including me. They helped make it a fun trip. Overall, I'm glad I dove the Red Sea but I was underwhelmed. Aggressor could have skipped a lot of the dead reefs and done multiple dives in the healthier places. I would have enjoyed that much more.

 

[sharkbear]

This sounds so much like my Red Sea trip last November (BDE + St Johns). The water was so clear and blue, there were so many beautiful structures and swim throughs, but so much of the reef was brown and dead. I remember staring at some dead sea fans, thinking how gorgeous it must have been when they were thriving and surrounded by fish. Friends who who have dived there decades before could not believe what they were seeing in my videos. And as you report, other divers would surface and exclaim at how amazing it was. What is that phenomenon where the baseline changes and people get used to how things are as compared to how they really should or used to be? Anyways, it was a sad trip for me.

 

[MB NZ]

Very sad to hear about the coral. Egypt has never been good for reliable shark sightings outside one or two hot spots at specific times of year.

 

[BoltSnap]

other divers would surface and exclaim at how amazing it was.

Come on, guys, what do you want them to do? Cry, wail, and slap their faces in grief in utter madness? I prefer to have happy people on a dive boat than grumpy, whining, bad-mood, complaining divers.

 

[Brant Emery]

Come on, guys, what do you want them to do? Cry, wail, and slap their faces in grief in utter madness? I prefer to have happy people on a dive boat than grumpy, whining, bad-mood, complaining divers.

I think that the reality is the Red Sea is just as bad as the Caribbean. Should have been here 20 years ago.

 

[Jai Bar]

I think newer divers don't know what a healthy reef looks like, so they were pleased with the seascapes and abundant small fish.

Also, I think that seasoned divers have a "higher enthusiasm threshold" and need to see more to be impressed, while new divers are easily delighted by common sightings.

My first deep south liveaboard many years ago the operator hyped with a lot of promises to see lots of sharks, of which of course we saw zero. Nowadays, when I see brochures or websites showing lots of Mantarays and Whale sharks I know that we will see probably everything but mantas or whale sharks...

But the reefs were in good condition, and at least at the time for a few days there coast on both sides (Egypt and Saudia) were completely uninhabited, not even a single light. So the nights were dark, sky full of stars and the plankton in the water shone as bright as the stars, these were magical nights, felt as far away as it can get from civilization.

Further north, places that were away from the regular 3-7 days liveaboards and of course dailies, we used to see lots of damage from overfishing, nets caught on the reef or corals blasted by dynamite fishing.

 

[Parlem]

I did a similar route on the Red Sea Aggressor IV in April this year and the seascape what very much like what you describe.
I've pretty much reached the conclusion that if you wish to see healthy reefs, you must head to Sharm or Dahab. Fewer big animal encounters there, but the underwater scenery is less depressing. Or, of course, refrain from diving the Egyptian Red Sea altogether. That's not to say that there aren't healthy reefs south of Sharm. It's just that dive operators/tour managers on liveaboards are a bit unimaginative and keep visiting the same spots, perhaps for lack of better ones ...

 

[Triple C]

This sounds so much like my Red Sea trip last November (BDE + St Johns). The water was so clear and blue, there were so many beautiful structures and swim throughs, but so much of the reef was brown and dead. I remember staring at some dead sea fans, thinking how gorgeous it must have been when they were thriving and surrounded by fish. Friends who who have dived there decades before could not believe what they were seeing in my videos. And as you report, other divers would surface and exclaim at how amazing it was. What is that phenomenon where the baseline changes and people get used to how things are as compared to how they really should or used to be? Anyways, it was a sad trip for me.

I agree, and I'm seeing this all over the world. We're going to lose our reefs very soon. It kills me.

 

[Triple C]

I did a similar route on the Red Sea Aggressor IV in April this year and the seascape what very much like what you describe.
I've pretty much reached the conclusion that if you wish to see healthy reefs, you must head to Sharm or Dahab. Fewer big animal encounters there, but the underwater scenery is less depressing. Or, of course, refrain from diving the Egyptian Red Sea altogether. That's not to say that there aren't healthy reefs south of Sharm. It's just that dive operators/tour managers on liveaboards are a bit unimaginative and keep visiting the same spots, perhaps for lack of better ones ...

I agree, but it's not just the Red Sea. It's happening everywhere.

 

[Christian]

The Egyptian Red Sea has been spared from bleaching up until recently. It was one of few places in the world. Hasn’t been since November last year. Looked good in Shagra and Elphinstone also was good in that aspect, however completely run over by hordes of divers. Not enjoyable. There are sharks to be seen still (less than 25-30 years ago due to more boats, divers, commotion…), but you have to go to the right spot at the right time. St Johns never been any sharks and September has never been a sharky time. Egyptian Red Sea is best for sharks in summer on Deadalus, Brothers and Elphinstone, or November-Dec for longimanus. Each year a little different, but roughly. Longimanus doesn’t seem to mind, so still one of the best places for OWT encounters.