Thomas Reef is the smallest reef of the Tiran Strait, (Sharm el Sheikh, Red Sea), but amazes for its coral laden walls that are continually getting lots of nutrients due to the strong currents that run through the strait. The top of the reef is an explosion of color with some of the most exquisite soft coral of the entire Sinai region and where you’ll find large gorgonia fans and excellent corals as table corals, brain corals, elkhorn corals and from 24 meters deep black corals forests.
Deep in the walls you’ll arrive to sand plateaus where many whitetip sharks live with lots of rays or leopard sharks. From these banks you’ll find spectacular canyons that reach 60 meters deep and are only suitable for experienced divers.
In that kind of healthy reefs is inevitable to find huge amounts of small reef fish, especially in the shallower areas: clownfish, anthias, butterfly fish, surgeon fish, parro fish, all kinds of triggerfish, lion fish, trumpet fish or stone fish. The area is also visited by pelagic species such as sea turtles, tuna or barracuda. This is a very interesting dive area but you must be very careful of the strong currents that can take you to the middle of the strait.
