The Alternatives

Local fishermen call the place Saba Erg, the 'Seven Pinnacles', and divers renamed it Alternatives because it is the alternative when the open sea is impossible. Night diving is very popular at the site.

The place is known for its fish life: potato groupers live here alongside numerous malabar and coral groupers. The first pinnacle, called Stingray Station, is a huge cleaning station for several kinds of stingrays, and at this outcrop, in the northwestern part of Alternatives, bluespotted stingrays tend to gather in large numbers, particularly in spring. Around the other pinnacles there are moray eels, shrimp, plenty of reef fish and some large groupers. Clearfin lionfish have also been seen at the site. There are also large sea fans; one of them, enormous, filled the whole space between two pinnacles.