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RED SEA Ras Mohammed - Stingray Station

Although Ras Mohammed is known to most divers as the Mecca of the northern Red Sea, there are many attractive sites in the immediate area which do not see so much diver traffic. One of my favourites is Stingray Station, on the western side of the Ras Mohammed peninsula, which often goes unexplored unless the weather turns nasty from the north-east and precludes diving at Ras.

Stingray Station is a group of coral heads which arc to form a sheltered overnight anchorage for liveaboard boats. There are five major coral heads which almost break surface, with a number of smaller heads dotted about a sandy plain, which is a regular resting place for a variety of rays hence the name. Depths to the sea bed range from 9-10m on the sand, to 18-20m on the western (seaward) side of the heads, so they can make an ideal second or third dive of the day; or a superb night dive. The most attractive feature of the site is that each head is quite different in its offering of topography, coral type and fish species and each is large enough to occupy an entire dive.

Most boats secure an anchor in the top of the northernmost head on arrival, as there is no fixed mooring here, and consequently this head is well damaged on its southern side. If you wish to see stingrays, then explore the sandy area to the east of the anchorage first, as they are easily disturbed and will soon swim off with the arrival of several divers. If you dive here early in the morning, it is worth swimming to the western side of heads 2 and 3 (see map) and out to around 20m depth, where you will often find leopard sharks sleeping under the table corals, but they do get up early!

My favourite is head 2, which is dissected by a Y-shaped gulley, brim-full of soft corals and a huge shoal of glassfish which part like a curtain as you swim through. Be cautious if you settle on the rubble in the gulley, as there are numerous scorpion fish resting here, taking an easy meal. On the north and south sides of this head are some fine gorgonian corals, each one home to pairs of long-nosed hawkfish, for those divers patient enough to search.

A short swim south takes you to head 3, which is different again, festooned with soft and whip corals and even black coral trees on an undercut wall on the southern side. Different species of coral fish seem to have made their home on this head, which presumably is propagated by the natural boundaries created by the heads. By now, you should have got your bearings and will press on towards head 4, which is the furthest point from the anchorage. Once again, you are confronted with a healthy coral community and its residents, but if you have both energy and air it is worth pushing a little further south from the head (perhaps 30-50m) to a low reef outcrop, around which you will find the remains of some amphora. The Gulf of Suez has, of course, been a major trade route since before biblical times and it is easy to imagine perhaps a Roman or Phoenician vessel coming to grief on this reef. The remains of the vessel are long gone and the amphora are well-concreted into the coral, although often when I return here it seems someone has been tempted to break one out.

Head 5 lies out of the arc further seaward to the west and can sometimes be an effort to reach, as there is often a north-south current to contend with. However, if conditions are right and you are pressing on for a whistle-stop tour, then it is worth cutting across to this head from head 2 on your way to head 3. Being a little more isolated in slightly deeper surrounding water, this again is a good spot for early morning reconnaissance for sleeping sharks.

This site is extremely popular with underwater photographers, as it offers so much variety in a small area in shallow water, which means long dives and no arduous swims with all that equipment. It does, of course, lack those dramatic bottomless walls offered by Ras Mohammed close by; but that variety is what makes the Red Sea so attractive and brings so many divers back again and again.