Full Circle Digital Magazine August 2013 | Page 25

M A R I N E

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GEORGINA JONES • GEOFF SPIBY

3. Sodwana Bay
Otherwise, there’s Sodwana Bay, right here on our east coast. Sodwana is in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park, a designated world heritage site. iSimangaliso means ‘place of miracle and wonder’ and diving these warm extravagantly populated waters, it’s not hard to see why. Sodwana has a series of huge reefs running alongside the shore and each one is like a metropolis bustling with life. Cleaning stations have shrimps and fish advertising their wares, sea goldies live in harems like crowded apartment dwellers, kingfish swoop through in search of prey like hit-and-run artists, Titan triggerfish swagger over the reefs like gangsters and turtles come through like alien starships, some to feed and some to mate or make their slow way up the beaches to lay their eggs. Big fish come here too, like raggedtooth sharks and mantas, and even the biggest fish of all, the whaleshark, sometimes visit these busy reefs. Selecting just one of these destinations is an almost impossi