The Breakers House Reef South, Soma Bay

The dive

The Breakers House Reef South is the southern half of the fringing reef at Ras Abu Soma, the headland that closes Soma Bay, and it is dived almost entirely from shore. Access is along the dive centre's 420 m jetty, which carries divers and cylinders out over the reef top on electric buggies and puts them in the water at the drop-off rather than in the shallows, so the swim to the reef edge is short.

The reef itself is a hard-coral shoulder that slopes away from a shallow, sunlit top. Porites domes and Acropora tables dominate, with clumps of spiky white coral and pockets that act as a nursery for juveniles. Recorded depths are modest: dive-log aggregators put the site's maximum around 18 m, and much of the dive is shallower than that, which is why the reef is used heavily for training and for very long, low-consumption dives.

Species records from OBIS for this stretch are ordinary Red Sea reef fauna rather than pelagics: two-band anemonefish, bluespotted ribbontail ray, giant moray, common lionfish, masked and exquisite butterflyfish, sailfin tang and giant clam. Dive-centre accounts add hawksbill turtles and torpedo rays on the southern section. The reef is also a standard night dive, when feather stars and crabs come out on the coral top.

The dive centre restricts independent house-reef diving: divers with fewer than about 30 logged dives are taken out with a guide at fixed times, while more experienced divers may enter when they like.

• Shore dive off a 420 m jetty that lands you at the drop-off
• Hard-coral garden of Porites domes and Acropora tables
• Shallow enough for very long dives and for training
• Regular night dive; turtles and torpedo rays reported

Conditions

Sheltered fringing reef inside the headland that closes Soma Bay. Current is generally mild, with an intermittent drift running north to south along the reef face; the usual plan is to swim into it and turn back with it. Water is reported at 21-23 C from January to April and 26-29 C from June to August.

On current: Generally mild. The dive club notes a current that sometimes runs north to south along the reef; the usual plan is to swim into it first and turn back with it. Water temperature reported at 21-23 C from January to April and 26-29 C from June to August.

Dives & underwater footage