Tobia Hamra

The dive

Tobia Hamra is the largest and deepest member of the Tobia group off Soma Bay, about 800 m south-west of Tobia Arbaa. It is an extensive sloping reef with ridges and a maze of sandy canyons running through a coral garden, and the standard plan is a slow multi-level circumnavigation of the main structure rather than a route to a maximum depth.

Depth quotes disagree at the bottom end and agree at the top. One operator gives 4 to 35 m, a dive guide 35 m, a Safaga operator a 30 m maximum, and a Soma Bay operator describes the reef sloping from 5 to 30 m. We record 4 to 30 m, which is the conservative maximum, and note that a second-hand description puts leopard sharks on the sand at 30 m. Every account agrees the good part is shallow: one guide says the site is better above 15 m, another says the most interesting features are at 15 m.

Conditions are the site's selling point. Protected by Soma Bay, with little current and generally calm water, it is repeatedly recommended for new divers - the gentle current that does run is what has the soft corals open and feeding. It can still get windy on the surface. Boat or zodiac access, roughly 30 to 35 minutes from Safaga.

Our OBIS records for this position are ordinary northern Red Sea reef fauna and read like the neighbouring Tobia and Soma Bay sites: starry and white-spotted pufferfish, giant moray, bluespotted ribbontail ray, bullethead parrotfish, Desjardin's sailfin tang, giant clam, sergeant major, common lionfish, scalefin anthias, two-band anemonefish, squirrelfish, blackback butterflyfish, Red Sea bannerfish, Suez fusilier and Klunzinger's wrasse. Operator accounts add Napoleon wrasse, green and hawksbill turtles, yellowbar angelfish, blackspot emperor and stonefish.

• Coral garden cut by a maze of sandy canyons and ridges
• Sheltered by Soma Bay: little current, generally calm
• Best above 15 m - the depth is available but not the point
• Multi-level circumnavigation of the main structure rather than a depth profile
• Green and hawksbill turtles, Napoleon wrasse; stonefish on the sand

Conditions

An extensive sloping reef with ridges and a maze of sandy canyons, protected by Soma Bay. Little current, generally calm, though it can be windy on the surface. Reef from about 4-5 m down to a conservative 30 m maximum, with the best of it above 15 m. No published visibility figure, so none is recorded.

On current: Sources agree the site is protected by Soma Bay with little current and generally calm water; the gentle current that does run is credited with keeping the soft corals open. It can get windy on the surface. Depth quotes disagree: 4-35 m from one operator, 35 m from a dive guide, a 30 m maximum from a Safaga operator, and a 5-30 m slope from a Soma Bay operator. We record the conservative 4-30 m. No source publishes a visibility figure, so none is recorded.

Dives & underwater footage