Egypt Red Sea - Habili Gazella (Wadi Lahami)
Part of the regional summaries: Egypt and Red Sea
More info
Egypt (NOAA CRW virtual station)A submerged pinnacle near Gazella Reef whose shallow crest carries a dense, colorful framework of branching corals and brain domes among dead, algae-covered fire coral, with streams of red and orange anthias and a pair of patrolling trevally. About 46% of coral tissue was bleached in September 2024, and the marker position is offset about 200 m from its source coordinates.
قمة مغمورة قرب شعبة غزالة تحمل قمتها الضحلة هيكلاً كثيفاً وملوناً من مرجانيات متفرعة وقباب مرجان الدماغ بين مرجان نار ميت تكسوه الطحالب، مع أسراب من أسماك الأنثياس الحمراء والبرتقالية وزوج من أسماك التريفالي الجوالة. أُبيض نحو 46% من الأنسجة المرجانية في سبتمبر 2024، وموضع العلامة مزاح نحو 200 m عن إحداثياته الأصلية.
ترجمة هذا الملخص بالذكاء الاصطناعي؛ النص الإنجليزي هو المعتمد.
Two independent survey stations shown with the program’s logo — click one to see how far it is from this site.
Four other CRD dive sites with their own pages within 5 km shown in orange — click a marker to open its page.
4 of the 50 photographs on this page are shown beside the text that discusses them under "Site description" below.
Site description
General benthic features
The pinnacle rises into a shallow crest carrying a dense, structurally complex framework — corymbose Acropora and cauliflower pocilloporids in cream, gold, pink, and lavender, mustard Millepora-type fire coral (dead and overgrown with algae, which can make it look alive), olive faviid domes, tabulate plates, and encrusting growth packed close, with anthias in red and orange streams over it and a pair of trevally patrolling above (e.g., Image 1, Image 2, Image 3).
Coral cover
- Reference: Mayfield (2025)
- Data file: (Mayfield, 2025-appendix A)
- CoralNet submission package (accession #5546)
- 18% ± 13% SD across 181 photographs.
- The site record gives the visit as 18% cover with 46% of coral tissue bleached at about 26.0°C-weeks DHW on the survey date (23 September 2024; NOAA Coral Reef Watch, Egypt virtual station).
Stressors
The bleaching figure is 46%.
Comparisons with other data
Apart from our own published survey shown here, we found no other surveys at this site as of 2026. Within 5 km, two Reef Check stations recorded station-year means of 30–56% hard coral cover between 2009 and 2023; the nearest, Reef Check at Wadi Lahami House Reef 1, 3.41 km away, read 30–46% between 2009 and 2023.
Dive record
The third dive of 23 September 2024 with Red Sea Diving Safari, on the habili — the submerged pinnacle — associated with Gazella Reef (e.g., Image 4).
Other notes
Habili Gazella's source coordinates were identical to Gazella Reef's, so its marker is offset roughly 200 m south so both markers are visible.
CV model comparison
More info
The reference is this dive site's own published CoralNet point count by the author (Mayfield 2025, Environments 12:248, Appendix A; most frames annotated by CoralNet's AI, trained and checked by the author). The computer-vision rows are this site's own values: Claude is a blind point count of all of the site's edited photographs, and CoralSCOP is the site's finished survey of its unedited photographs. They are on different frame sets from the published count, a row under 30 frames is indicative only, and no computer-vision method yet estimates coral cover accurately on new images.| Method | Hard coral cover (%) | Photos (n) ± SE |
|---|---|---|
| Published point count (CoralNet-assisted) | 17.7 | |
| CoralSCOP unedited | 21.9 | n = 190 |
| Claude (edited photos) | 19.4 | n = 176 · SE 1.1 |
The two computer-vision methods agree within 2.5 pp (19.4–21.9%) and read within 4.2 pp of the published point count (17.7%).
See a more detailed, stand-alone version of this table.
Independent surveys nearby
Coral Reef DiagnosticsWithin 5 km, 2 independent survey stations recorded hard coral cover in 16 surveys between 2009 and 2023. Of the 2 stations surveyed in more than one year, 1 declined (by 12 points) and 1 increased (by 11 points) between their first and latest surveys. Two stations share the longest span (2009–2023); one, Wadi Lahami House Reef 1 (Reef Check, 3.41 km away), went from 30% in 2009 (mean of 2 surveys) to 41% in 2023 (mean of 2 surveys). Since 2021, station-year means average 43% (range 41–44%; n = 2 station-years from 4 surveys). This site's own estimate (18%) is not compared with these surveys: none lies within 2 km.
Collected by other programs using different methods (Reef Check uses point-intercept transects), so these are context for the figures above, not a like-for-like comparison. Where a station was surveyed more than once, the cell shows either the range of its values or, as a single value, the mean of surveys made in one year. Station names are not dive-site names.
| Agency | Site / location | Date | Hard coral cover (%) | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reef Check | Wadi Lahami House Reef 1 | 2009–2023 | 30–46% (range of yearly means; 8 surveys) | 3.41 km |
| Reef Check | Wadi Lahami House Reef 2 | 2009–2023 | 44–56% (range of yearly means; 8 surveys) | 3.44 km |
Data & links
All images from Coral Reef Diagnostics. Data are from Coral Reef Diagnostics and the organizations named in the data sources above.
© Coral Reef Diagnostics.