Sodwana Bay

Sodwana Bay Sodwanabaai
View of a beach in the bay with a humpback whale in the foreground
Sodwana Bay Location in South Africa
Coordinates	27°32′S 32°41′E / 27.533°S 32.683°E / -27.533; 32.683Coordinates: 27°32′S 32°41′E / 27.533°S 32.683°E / -27.533; 32.683
Ocean/sea sources	Indian Ocean
Basin countries	South Africa

Sodwana Bay is a bay in South Africa. It is located on the KwaZulu Natal coast, between St. Lucia and Lake Sibhayi.

Sodwana Bay National Park is a narrow strip of forested sand dunes located along the east coast. Proclaimed a national park in the 1950s, it is frequented by anglers and divers.

Sodwana is situated in the Maputaland Marine Reserve and the only scuba diving area along the Greater St Lucia Wetlands Park (now renamed to iSimangaliso) coastline. Classified as one of the top dive sites in the world this 50 km reef complex boasts around 95 species of hard and soft coral, sponges, other invertebrates and around 1200 fish species. It attracts 35 000 scuba divers every year. Vast 700m deep valleys, submarine canyons, are strewn over a distance of 2 km. It was in one of these that on 27 November 2000 that the coelacanth was rediscovered.

Although it is believed that in recent years fish species have declined significantly in this area of the South African coast, nothing could be further from the truth. Sailfish, king mackerel and all other pelagic species of game fish especially the kingfish migrate south down the east coast of Africa and since the activities of sea pirates off the coast of north east Africa healthy populations of pelagic game fish again reach all the way south off the coast of South Africa which has again properly re-established Sodwana as a favored and popular sport fishing destination. Sailfish are again in abundance and present in large numbers since it seems that the sea pirates off Somalia have driven away the foreign illegal Far Eastern commercial fishing trawlers.

The bay is famous for visits by endangered marine megafauna including whale sharks, great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, blacktip sharks, manta rays, orange-spotted groupers, potato cods, critically endangered leatherback turtles,loggerhead sea turtles, and even coelacanths, the 'living fossil' appear. The discovery of presences of Coelacanths made the region world-famous.