Dolphins, turtles and dugongs

"Soraya" means "small". This tells us that we are on the sister reef of the larger Sataya Gota Kebir. The water depth in the area to be dived is 20 to 25 meters. The reef has a length of 250m and a width of about 70m. The boat usually moors in a small lagoon in the southeast of the reef. However, depending on the current, there is also the possibility to moor the boat in the southwest at a notch of the reef. The Sataya area almost always has current from the north.
The mooring in the southeast, in the lagoon, is also one of the most beautiful places to dive in the midday. Very few people dive here and you get the impression that you are entering the water shortly after the coral garden is formed.

The most common diving tours, due to the current from the north, start with the Zodiac of course in the north. Then one has the free choice whether one dives left or right hand side. Here you can practice navigation and you have a dive of about 60 to 70 minutes in each direction. There is also a small path in the north through a cave into a lagoon. This is covered with mountain corals. The whole area is full of huge mountain corals, large table corals, leather corals and soft corals. There are a lot of juvenile fish, large schools of snappers, bigeyes and barbels. You can also find snails, as well as dolphins and young reef sharks.

There is another coral garden in the northwestern area, behind a sandy road. It consists of old and new coral formations and slopes down to 40m in the north.

Sataya Gota Kebir - "Kebir" means "big" - is located west of the main Sataya reef. The water depth in the area that is dived is from 5 to 25m. The reef is about 140m long and has a width of about 80m. The mooring is well protected, usually right by a plateau with a depth of 5 to 15m. Since the current, except in autumn, actually always comes from the north, it is an ideal day and night mooring place - perfect for exploring the plateau in the dark.
To the south, the plateau is at 5-11m, dropping to 15-18m on the outer sides. At night it is teeming with life. There is almost a guarantee of Spanish dancers, this is what this place is known for. You can also find many kinds of shrimps, rabbits fish, parrot fish in cocoon, flute fish, lion fish, gorgon heads and many more.

In the west you will find some bigger blocks at 22m. Except in the northwestern area there are actually small and big blocks everywhere. You will find among others flatworms, moray eels, small groups of hunting fish as well as slugs.

In the north there is a lagoon with a beautiful coral garden, swarm fish and an anemone colony.

The mooring of most boats is in the north at the entrance to the lagoon. The lagoon is not so interesting, because there is only sand. But it is a huge lagoon that leads to the "Dolphin Reef", where you can meet dolphins very often. Usually after the dive a small detour is made into the lagoon to give the divers the opportunity to snorkel with dolphins.

At Shaab Sataya South there are 3 possible tours, but only 2 of them are interesting - the third one is rather an exception.
Entrance to the lagoon: Night dives are often done in the 10 m area under the boat. A nice area are the blocks north of the boats to the entrance of the lagoon.