The action was heating up. A half-dozen gray reef sharks were circling our periphery, gradually moving in; attracted by the bait line of fish carcasses just to my right. Their behavior suddenly changed and the first shark rocketed in for a bite, setting off a chain reaction of lightning quick bolts of speed and frenzy.
In a split second the mood had changed from calm to chaos. I wasn't sure whether to melt into the reef or move out for a shot. With more than a little trepidation, I chose the latter. I hoped I wouldn't end up being diver du jour.
We were hugging the reef line of a narrow channel called Nigali Passage that splits a fringing reef off the island of Gau in Fiji's Lomaiviti Group. The shark dive was the culmination of a 10-day journey through this remote and normally inaccessible central region of Fiji aboard the 110-foot liveaboard diveboat vessel NAI'A.
This was my second visit to Fiji and unlike my previous trip which took me through the more accessible and popular areas of the islands I discovered that there was much more to Fiji diving than what meets the faceplate.
Fiji has a long-standing reputation with traveling divers as the "soft coral capital of the world." And with neon-colored reef E6 and anthias mobbed bommies in areas such as the Beqa Lagoon in the southern region and Somo Somo Straits in the northern region, this proclamation is hardly disputed. Fiji however is not all glitter and soft coral as I was soon to find out.
We set sail from Pacific Harbor a small resort area along the southern coast of Fiji's largest island Viti Levu. Although our destination to the Lomaiviti Group hardly qualified as a long distance expedition the type of diving we would he doing in Fiji was far from the norm.
We left Pacific Harbor and motored into nearby Beqa Lagoon to warm up our fins and blow the cobwebs out of our mouthpieces. After a couple of days, we headed out for the big action in the Lomaiviti Group. The Lomaiviti Group which literally translates as "central Fiji" is made up of the seven islands of Ovalau, Gau, Nairai, Koro, Makogai Wakaya and Batiki.
This area is rich in early Fijian history. Captain William Bligh was the first European to record the Lomaiviti Group.
In 1789 Bligh's crew carried out the now famous mutiny on the Bounty while in Tongan Waters. The mutineers placed Bligh and his officers in a launch with little supplies and little hope. Bligh and his men set out for the island of Timor some 6,000 miles away.
While sailing through Fiji or the Cannibal Islands as they were then known (for obvious reasons) Captain Bligh discovered and mapped the central islands in the waters that now hear his name.
Although the region is fairly remote today the Lomaiviti Group was the cultural and commercial hub of the islands during Fiji's early years. The town of Levuka on the island of Ovalau for example was Fiji's first capital and was the main port of call for merchant ships and whalers during the 1800s. Today the Fijian capital is in Suva on the main island of Viti Levu.
The islands making up the Lomaiviti Group are the summit tips of an underwater mountain range that rise 7,500 feet from a deep trench formed by the Koro Basin to the east and the swift moving currents of Bligh Straits to the west.
Beyond the protective fence-like barrier of the island's fringing reefs are sand chutes and coral ledges that plunge into sheer vertical drops. These underwater walls stairstep into the clear, deep blue waters of big game country. Hammerhead sharks, dogtooth tuna, schooling barracuda and manta rays are the rule here along with some fairly swift currents that require slack tide calculations.
A few days after we left Beqa Lagoon, we sailed across flat, sunny seas to dive the big walls off the island of Wakaya in the Lomaiviti Group. Once we were anchored and assembled in the inflatables, we bounded out through a cut in the reef and dropped into the expansive blue of open water.
I finned down to a small sand chute leading away from the wall, searching for fire gobies with my macro setup. I should have known better than to bring a macro lens on a big wall dive, but I had seen pairs of fire gobies dancing along the sand chutes in similar areas and I was intent on bringing back a pair in the can.
I eased my way up the sand chute and spotted a jittery duo dancing and flashing above their sand dens. I moved in with the camera and brought the fire gobies into focus in my viewfinder. As I was lining up the shot, a dark shape suddenly eclipsed the sun and cast an immense shadow over my scene. I looked up and immediately wanted to hang myself for my lens choice.
Two large mantas were gracefully winging along the top of the wall. I abandoned the fire gobies and swam up to intercept them. The first manta banked like a jet fighter and glided towards me for a closer look while the other continued down the wall. As I moved up the wall, the manta followed. He stayed with me for over 15 minutes, constantly hovering and circling. The manta wasn't going away.
Frustrated that I had only a macro lens on the camera, I decided to try and ignore the manta and go about my business shooting pictures. After three or four shots, I looked up and the manta was still there hovering like an alien spacecraft just off the edge of the bommie. He was watching me at eye level. I couldn't believe it, my cat doesn't give me this much attention!
It didn't take long before the other divers discovered us and they charged in like the cavalry to get their piece of the encounter. I sat on my perch as they invaded with flailing arms, muffled regulator cries and screaming exhaust bubbles. I could only smile to myself as the animal turned and winged back down the wall in search of his buddy.
We dove this area for the next couple of days, seeing the mantas only one other time. For the rest of the trip, we dove some spectacular reefs and drop-offs along the rest of the Lomaiviti Group, including Namena, Makogai and Gau where we finished with the adrenaline pounding shark dive.
Fiji lies in the southern tropics between the equator and Tropic of Capricorn. It comprises over 300 islands, reefs and atolls that are strewn across some 200,000 square miles of the South Pacific. Longitudinally, Fiji straddles the international dateline where the new day begins. The fact that the Fijians are the first to greet the new day may provide a clue as to why they are among the friendliest people on earth. Their warm hospitality and honest, caring attitude really sets Fiji apart from other world-class diving destinations.
Another reason Fiji has become so popular is its accessibility. A 10-hour flight from the U.S. departure cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco delivers travelers to Nadi Airport on Fiji's main island of Viti Levu. From there, travelers are whisked to their prospective destinations by an excellent network of roads, bus services and inter-island airlines.
Fiji is more than just another diving destination that happens to have world-class diving. The next time you decide to pack up the dive gear and take a sojourn to St. Somewhere, try something a little out of the ordinary. You just might find out that anything can happen!
Special thanks to the liveaboard diveboat NAI'A.
Ed Weber is a STM Contributing Editor.