Two-Mile Reef — Sodwana Bay

Planning a trip?

Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Sodwana Bay location page.

Overview

Southernmost coral reef on the African continent. Hard and soft corals support a teeming reef-fish community plus turtles and the occasional whale shark. Site is huge — operators run different drop points at Anton's, Caves and Overhangs.

What you'll see

4 species curated

Green turtle
year-round
Whale shark
seasonal
Peak: Nov · Dec · Jan · Feb
Honeycomb moray
year-round
Paperfish
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Green turtle
high confidence
Last confirmed
Apr 2026
Recent records
130 within 10 km

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	26–28 °C	15–25 m	mild
Feb	26–28 °C	15–25 m	mild
Mar	25–27 °C	15–25 m	mild
Apr	24–26 °C	15–25 m	mild
May	22–24 °C	15–25 m	mild
Jun	21–23 °C	15–25 m	mild
Jul	21–23 °C	15–25 m	mild
Aug	21–23 °C	15–25 m	mild
Sep	22–24 °C	15–25 m	mild
Oct	23–25 °C	15–25 m	mild
Nov	24–26 °C	15–25 m	mild
Dec	25–27 °C	15–25 m	mild

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

5mm wetsuit — Winter water cools below 23C.

Next step

Book your trip to Sodwana Bay

Hotels, liveaboards, dive operators, gear recommendations, and travel logistics for the whole region.

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