Fasma Abu Fendera

'Fasma' is the name given to a channel between two blocks of reef, and here the channel formed at the west-facing tip of the long Abu Fendera reef, where a block broke away from the rest of the reef. At the mouth of the channel, coral towers are completely covered in soft corals of every colour, fed by the current flowing into the channel.

Abu Fendera is a huge, elongated, isolated reef, about 7 hours' sailing south of St. John's and 17 miles from the coast. The reef system stretches for more than 3 km, like a coral necklace, in the Halaib Triangle, a sparsely populated area by the border with Sudan. This reef system has schools of parrotfish that are not frightened by divers, and grey reef sharks and dolphins pass through.