Fish Charades Or Spoon Of Vegemite

REEF is back! We personally are super excited. When they came last year we were a pair of newbies who couldn't differentiate one parrotfish from the other. 

Now it's exactly the same but at least we've got a rein on other types of fishies. 

Trip leading this time is Janna: come to her for tips and tricks and all fish; aided by her hubby Claude! (Who you always find shadowing her underwater, just a few feet above.)

"Have I ever told you I have been a fan of yours for so many years?" - Greg, as Janna took them by storm with her games and sense of humor. 

And Martha brought over our youngest guest (at least in our tenure) yet: Des, 13 years old and ready to rumble! He is, like his mom describes him, an old soul.

We also slowly discovered that this group is full of boring people... coming up with all sorts of shenanigans, such as charades, and jeopardy... so so boring. 

LET'S GO DIVING!

We started off with a lovely dive for divers to get acquainted with Fiji reefs and its fish: pink eyed gobies on hard corals, little ray, pink anemonefish, Fiji tomato anemonefish, and even a timid yet spunky peacock mantis shrimp. 

On Carol’s 1000th dive (Congrats Carol!) she saw all her favorite fish: “Just all those anthias on the top of the dive sites! And the cute longnose filefish!” - Carol. Laurie subscribes to how adorable those little filefish are. 

Carol's 1000th dive ~ Janna

Hawksbill turtle sighting before she left into a sea fan filled passage. 

Luzon anthias were seen flirting at the 120 ft/ 32 m depth all over the rubble in between dotted fairy wrasses. 

Male square spotted anthias ~ Janna

Black-spot angelfish female ~ Janna

“It was a huge fish!” - Deb spotted our resident speckled snapper. 

Huge bar cheek jack wanted to get rid of his remora companion by getting real close to the divers: “ Get off me!” - the fish. And that was not the only time we saw that... remoras were stuck on snappers, groupers, trevallies... 

Double ringed flabellina ~ Colette

Colette  “We could repeat this dive the whole day again!” reverse Howard's diner

Solar boxfish ~ Carrie

Carrie, do you have a favorite fish? “Parrotfish, I love parrotfish.” And they were in their spawning behavior, so even better!

Divers passed along the sighting of a tiny mini juvenile fire dartfish!

That’s impressive, as dartfish are notorious for being easily spooked; but these divers are stealth pros. 

Hawksbill turtle ~ Janna

Evil minds have blended together and “punishments” have been bequeathed upon divers that misbehave. 

What type of misbehavement do you ask? Forgetting to analyze their nitrox of course. 

Barred thicklip ~ Janna

And the first victim was Laurie… 

So she had to prepare a fish for charades at the end of dinner! She mimicked the pacific bird wrasse and divers guessed that so fast!  

Survey time

“That was the best dive of my life; everything was there!” - Martha. Grand central station rarely disappoints, and today was no exception. 

To the distant sighting of a hammer head for some, to three leafy scorpionfish for others, and finishing up in Dory land. 

Palette surgeonfish 

Superb conditions at Namena… you could even see the bottom of the ocean floor from the boat…

Peacock shrimp ~ Colette

Song of the week; please sing to the tune of Tears in Heaven (Janna created this song 12 years ago aboard and here we are)

If I knew my fish,

I could fill out my survey

So, here’s my heartfelt wish

To tell an Ambon from a Ternate

Short form or long, you can’t go wrong

Cuz we know we all belong,

Here in Fiji

Here’s what you should do

While you count fish on NAIA

Learn just one or two

And soon you’ll beee on fire

You’ll think you can’t

Put on your big girl (boy) pants

Cuz we know you CAN count fish

Here in Fiji

Key change

Butterflies and Wrasse

Knock you on your mmmmmm

Damsels, Demoiselles, Chromis, Dascyllus

What’s the DIFF??

Now you know your fish

Cuz in class you were listening,

It was your greatest wish

To know your fish here in Fiji

Big and Small

You know them all

Cuz you came aboard the NAIA on a REEF trip 

(show flag)

(Repeat with everyone 1x)

Dwarf hawkfish

So the next night it was Janna’s turn to amuse the masses with charades. She had to mimic a long nose hawffish. 

Did I mention that Chris is now choosing the fish in the punishment? And if you are not successful you have to take a spoonful of vegemite? 

Axilspot hogfish ~ Janna

Des has been our named shark whisperer of the trip: bull shark and hammer shark! 

Two initial phase leopard wrasses ~ Janna

“That was a fish wall!” - Joanne referring to the school of schooling bannerfish. 

The before mentioned wall of fish: fusiliers, schooling bannerfish and surgeonfish

A bunch of red-margined fairy wrasses in the rubble areas around Namena (that is a new find for us.) 

Sea snake! Which was incredibly exciting for Carrie, not so much for Martha and Colette, who kept their distance from both diver and krait. 

Eagle ray and divers!

From drift passages to the shallowest dive ever; sharks, barracudas, sea kraits, a whole colony of zebra dartfish, and three spotted angelfish (Big Mo’s and Janna’s favorite).

At the "mangroove" area we had juvenile spadefish just posing, huge reeftop pipefish, and high fin shrimpgobies. 

Eagle ray

We did get “stranded” at Somo Somo as the tide lowered and one of our skiffs had no water to be immersed in. a new adventure at sunset, after a lot of kava, songs, dancing, and laughing. 

Even more charades: Janna had to do a shark sucker; Colette a yellow nose shrimp goby; and Naomi a spotted fin squirrelfish.

Yellow nose shrimp goby

Lovely dives continue: sharks, eagle ray, more yellow nose shrimp gobies (so cute), thread fin dartfish (first time for us) and even more pygmy and normal size angelfish!

Charades night: Chuck had to sign a three spotted angelfish (which he did impeccably if I may say so) and Lucy got on the floor to demonstrate a crocodile needlefish. 

Three spot dascyllus ~ Janna

Successful morning at Wakaya!

One dive site full of hammerheads and some fly by mantas.

The other dive site had four cleaning mantas; Riley, Mantanomi, and Nai’a Blue. 

Mickey Manta

Mickey Manta made an appearance later on in the day. 

Colette and myself found two multi-barred pygmy angelfish in a little crevice down at 90feet (SO CUTE!). 

Lucy and Chuck performed a dual charades for that night; those two really know how to work together. 

Look closely... thsoe are silver tips in the big blue ~ Greg

Triplespot blenny 

For the last lovely day of diving, we set out to cruise both sea mounts: beautiful coral, amazing lighting, fish everywhere! 

And one group had five to seven silvertips.... not jealous at all... 

Vinaka vakalevu to all you REEF fishies!

Hope to "sea" you again!