Shaab Eshta

In Arabic, "eshta" means "cream" and is used for something pretty or sweet, like the English word "honey". The name Shaab Eshta is translated as "cream of the reefs". The larger erg, to the east, is shaped like a heart, with a tight canyon-like passage running up to its top, and there are seagrass meadows around its edges.

Barracuda hover just below the surface in the channel. On the ergs there are scorpionfish, parrotfish, butterflyfish and angelfish, and gobies with shrimps live in the sand. Near the mooring, a small cave shelters glassfish. In the gullies between the blocks there are schools of goatfish, sweetlips and snappers, and to the south lives a resident school of hatchetfish. On the rubble, stonefish, scorpionfish and crocodilefish are often seen, and a Malabar grouper is often seen patrolling the site.