Go In & Follow The Fish

It is just lovely, to have to deal with not the best weather; a bit of rain, much wind, and therefore waves… yet so many smiling faces and amazing time underwater.

And then the sun came out for the rest of the days; lots of sun tanning, beers on the sun deck; and people mingling. 

Disclamer, we had only two videographers on this trip, who are amazing, but no stills. 

Lots of reef and fish photos that represent what we saw without being taken on this trip. 

Enjoy everyone.

“That did NOT suck.” - was the statement of the day from Leanne (Maytag)

“I will remember that dive forever.” - John, man of little words (Mellow Yellow)

Scorpionfish; lemon coral gobies; leopard blennies

Flurry of activity: surgeonfish schooling, unicornfish schooling, snappers schooling, fusiliers creating a highway through the coral structures. 

Then you add on sea fans; soft corals; and staircases of table corals going down down down. 

We have divers looking out into the blue, others looking intently into the reef: a bit or a lot for everyone!

Semi found the divers a halimeda ghost pipefish! That was very exciting! It was not found again… .but a leafy scorpionfish stood in its place. 

Halimeda ghost pipefish

“I don’t know which dive was my favorite; Mellow Yellow or Maytag…”  - Paul

“Such amazing hard corals, it is so freaking great!” - Michael 

Namena has so much to give. 

First day, not so calm oceans on the surface, yet near perfect conditions underwater. Clear blue waters; only bad visibility because of the amount of fishie. 

Siblings! Two baby sharks; they are normal grey reef sharks, except their eyes are too big for their bodies. 

“It does not get better than that!” - Grant, after a lovely time at grand central station, filled with grey reef sharks eyeing us, even a hammer swooping by to say hi, so so many dartfish, and fish e v e r y w h e r e. 

Hammerhead shark

The day just continued with the big and the small; schools of fish, ribbon eels, mantis shrimps, dragonets, pipefish, decorated dartfish, shrimps and blennies (Namena and her blennies man…)

Blair even found a lovely fat juicy decorated dartfish to show his buddy and longtime friend Leanne. Applauses all around. 

Decorated dartfish

“When you get on the top, it's like the garden of Eden; you are surrounded by bazillion fish… and you just enjoy it.” - John

Lovely chevron manta ray came to say hi while divers enjoyed one of the sharkiest dives in a while: grey reefs coming and going in between unicornfish, fusiliers, trevallies, and snappers. 

Even a school of humpnose unicornfish in the deeps… quite unusual yet welcomed! 

Sawtooth barracuda

The second day kept bringing joy. 

Blue eyed coral crab

Small pygmy sea horses jumping from hidroid to hidroid, pipefish all around, blue eyed coral crabs (and some squeals about them as well), and the beautiful top of Kansas’ wheat field (sinularia corals).

Kansas field ~ Sheena

“Pregnant shrimp were not on my list of things to see here in Fiji.” - Leanne

Brown banded pipefish 

We had to gamble and be a bit creative on this day as currents were not reading the tide chart at all. 

Fiji anemone fish ~ Sheena

One group of divers had the closest encounter with a hammerhead shark, who seemed to like them as it stayed around them for a bit. 

Another group dropped in on top of a grey reef shark nursery! 10 baby sharks and a bunch of teenage grey reefs. 

And then just fish: huge school of big eyed trevallies swarmed by surgeonfish, with sharks coming in and out; to finish off with an elegant eagle ray swooping in to give us the side eye. 

Big eyed trevally

Windiest day was the chillest of diving days; not as many swarming schools of fish, just calm relaxing ones, in search for the small cryptic fishie, as well as mantis shrimps, lovely leather coral and even small curious white tip sharks.

The village visit was so much fun. Lovely day for a walk in the island, meeting or coming back to a village many of our guests had already been too. 

Water puppy and all the dancing, it was an evening full of music and laughter. 

Sister and brother, some of the youngest on the island! 

Mighty Righty group should be called Hammer Magnet; they seem to be the divers that hammers smell and want to get closer to!

Golden mantis shrimp

Two green leafy scorpionfish on the main cleaner station, very close to the shrimps that will give you a free manicure session. 

Semi found divers two lovely golden mantis shrimps. 

Wrasses that will (ha)“wrasse” you non stop and even a small shy octopus under a coral.  

Hammers eventually smelled Lucky Lefties and went to meet them as well. 

Pink anemonefish ~ Sheena

Four to five different species of barracudas; rivers of them to be exact! 

And the inflow of big eyed trevally, swarming in front and all around some of the divers! 

Beautiful!

Sawtooth barracuda

Some turtles in the afternoon, long jaw mackerel feeding, parrotfish “kissing” as they marked their territory, a monster of a tuna, big juicy decorated dartfish, multi-barred angelfish saying hi, and fusiliers dancing all around the reef.

Even a dolphin pod which Chris and Leanne got close enough to to sneak into the water and get a glimpse of them underwater!

“That was so beautiful.” - Theresa after a lovely Hardcoral wall at Mount Mutiny. 

Hardcoral and chromis ~ Sheena

Little hammer head, little turtle, little crabs, and one huge giant lizard fish. 

School of sawtooth barracudas travelled from one sea mount to the next… or they were different exact schools… the point, we had tons of them and they are glorious. 

FIji reef ~ Sheena

Both Cat’s Meow and Humann Nature, diving them on that perfect sweetspot, just brings ALL the fish in the area around these two blocks. 

White pygmy sea horses ~ Don

White pygmy sea horses, another black one, pipefish, leopard blennies, lemon coral gobies, huge trumpet fish, massive many spotted sweetlips, and coral that just keeps on going.

Pink anemonefish ~ Sheena

"That top was so full of so many types of anemones!" - Theresa

Trip finished with an eagle ray and a thrilling beautiful dive full of fusiliers and leopard blennies! 

Vinaka vakalevu everyone!

See you soon!