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White Cape St Blaize lighthouse with red-roofed keepers' buildings on a rocky headland — Mossel Bay

Mossel Bay · South Africa · Reef

Santos Reef

Featherworm and sea-fan garden beside the main swimming beach

Area photo: Bob Adams from Amanzimtoti, South Africa · CC BY-SA 2.0

Santos Reef forms the western border of Mossel Bay's main swimming beach and lies in 2 to 7 m of water. It is a shallow garden of featherworms, sea fans and redbait with octopus and abundant schools of blacktail, and sand dollars live along its sandy edge.

Where it is and how deep

Depth profile of Santos Reef: typical dive 2–7 m (7–23 ft) 18 m · Open Water30 m · Advanced40 m · Recreational limit2 m7 mtypical dive
Depths on a shared scale to 40 m (130 ft); dashed lines mark common certification limits.

34.1720° S, 22.1330° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.

The dive

The reef runs along the western side of Mossel Bay's main swimming beach, and a short boat ride brings divers onto it. Depth stays between 2 and 7 m across the whole site, which keeps the profile shallow and simple from descent to ascent. The reef itself is a garden of featherworms, sea fans and redbait, with octopus tucked in among the growth.

Blacktail gather over the reef in abundant schools, moving above the featherworms, sea fans and redbait. On the edge of the reef, sand dollars can be found on the bottom. These are live animals rather than empty shells, and divers are asked not to remove any of them, since the ocean they live in is the visiting diver's responsibility.

Marine life and season

  • Octopus & cuttlefish
  • Reef fish swarms
Month-by-month season rating for Santos Reef
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
PrimePrimeGoodFairFairFairFairFairFairFairGoodPrime

Season follows Mossel Bay: Diving peaks in the mid-summer months, when game fish arrive and soft corals bloom; whales pass from June to mid-November.

Dive videos

Diving Santos reef in Mossel Bay with Garden Route Scuba · Fun with Willie on YouTube

Santos wreck and giant stingray · Garden Route Scuba on YouTube

Sources

  1. Scuba Diving in Mossel Bay — Avenues Guesthouse (Go Dive text)
  2. Electrodive Scuba Diving Mossel Bay — ShowMeSA
  3. Diving the south coast of South Africa — Wikivoyage

More dive sites in Mossel Bay

Reef

Butterfly Wall

Long nose pipefish and shovel nose crayfish in 4 to 8 m

4–8 mbeginner

Reef

Mitch's Reef

Orange sponges up to 3 m long beside banks of sea grass

to 8 mbeginner

Reef

Sponge Reef

Large sponges and red romans at 22 to 25 m off Cape St. Blaize

22–25 madvanced

Reef

Windvogel Reef

Caves, gullies and drop-offs to 33 m, with sharks and seals

3–33 madvanced

Similar dives elsewhere

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House Reef

Pemba Island · Tanzania

Coral bommies off the resort's own water entrance

to 5 mbeginner

Reef

Redbait Reef

Robberg & Plettenberg Bay · South Africa

Juvenile reef fish and cuttlefish among anemones in the shallows

6–9 mbeginner

Reef

Shimba Hills

Pemba Island · Tanzania

A split in the wall opens into a sand valley at 12 m

to 12 mbeginner

Reef

A-Frame

Cape Peninsula Kelp Forests · South Africa

Ridges of medium height running out to a seaward pinnacle

5–10 mintermediate