Sataya Reef South

The dive

Sha'ab Sataya is the largest reef of the Fury Shoals and the southernmost, a horseshoe roughly 4,700 m across lying about 15 km off the Hamata coast. It is best known as the Dolphin House of the deep south, but that reputation belongs to the lagoon inside the horseshoe. This entry is the southern end, and the published position for the dive, 24 degrees 09.383 minutes north by 35 degrees 42.883 minutes east, falls within a few hundred metres of our pin.

The south is the reef's working end. It carries the safe overnight moorings that liveaboards use, which is why one route guide calls it the most visited site on the reef by a wide margin and why it is where night dives and early-morning dives get done. The sheltered ground here is a large lagoon with a sandy seabed averaging about 10 m; it runs up to the southern wall beneath the moorings, where a series of coral rocks rise from the sand and the boats tie on. The entrance to the lagoon is flanked by a coral garden that starts at about 25 m and climbs the reef wall to within 5 m of the surface, and on the exposed outer side an impressive wall drops past ledges towards 150 m, with frequently strong current that has built dense coral growth and pulls big fish in along the reef.

That gives three quite different dives off the same moorings. The classic early-morning run takes a RIB to the eastern side, descends to around 35 m looking out into the blue, then works back along the wall to the moorings, picking up the coral garden at 25 m and following the corals at 10 to 15 m into the lagoon. The night dive drops straight off the boat onto the 10 m sand and stays close to the coral rocks. A third route on the northern side goes to 40 m and runs with the current. Only the lagoon is beginner ground; the outer routes need depth and current experience.

The reef's spinner dolphins are the reason most people are here, and the occurrence records for this position put spinner dolphin among the species logged. But this is the south end, not the resting lagoon, and one operator states plainly that diving is not allowed in the bay itself. What you dive here is coral: the south side carries the reef's best hard-coral garden, and the logged fauna around the pin is small and varied rather than pelagic, running to Spanish dancer, Nembrotha and Phyllidia nudibranchs, emperor angelfish, bluespotted ribbontail ray, hogfish, cleaner shrimp, dogtooth tuna and striated fusilier.

• Overnight moorings on the coral rocks under the south wall, which is why the night dives and dawn dives happen here
• Coral garden flanking the lagoon entrance, rising from about 25 m to within 5 m of the surface
• Outer wall dropping past ledges towards 150 m with frequently strong current and dense coral
• The reef's best hard-coral garden is on this southern side, on a shallow plateau ending at the drop-off

Conditions

A big offshore reef in the deep south with a calm inside and an exposed outside. Water runs about 22 to 30 C across the year on the reef as a whole. Expect a sheltered mooring, flat water on the lagoon side, and swell and current the moment you go round to the open face.

On current: Two different regimes off one mooring. Inside, on the lagoon sand at about 10 m, there is effectively nothing and the site is used for night dives and for beginners; outside, on the exposed face of the reef, the current is described as frequently strong and is what has built the coral and brings the big fish. We record the site as strong current because that is the conservative reading and because the standard routes here are the outer ones. Visibility is the same split: a guide operating in the lagoon quotes 15 to 25 m, and the same route guide that describes the sand warns that navigation over the uniform seabed is difficult and is sometimes made harder by limited visibility. We have taken the low end.

Best months: Mar, Apr, May, Sep, Oct, Nov