Bottlenose dolphin

Photo: Frank Krasovec · CC BY-NC

Bottlenose dolphins visit Shaab Sataya's outer reef edges, often bow-riding the swell from liveaboard vessels approaching the site and occasionally joining spinner dolphin pods in mixed-species aggregations at the lagoon mouth. They are generalist predators consuming a wide variety of fish and cephalopods, and their larger body size and more direct swimming style distinguishes them easily from the more acrobatic spinners. Interactions with bottlenose tend to be briefer and more on their own schedule than the resting spinner pod encounters in the lagoon.