There are a handful of spaces remaining on one of our prime-time charters, October 11-18. Fiji’s spring has traditionally been our most heavily booked season and it is very unusual that there are any empty rooms this close to departure. So hurry up – direct bookings qualify for a 30% last-minute discount! This offer is not open to investment bankers or mortgage brokers.

Every NAI’A diver has seen the ubiquitous reddish-orange anemonefish that is so common on our healthy reefs. For years I mistakenly called it a Tomato Clownfish until I learned that no less an authority than Dr. Gerald Allen called it Amphiprion melanopus. (The fish nerds among you know that the Tomato Clownfish is actually the Amphiprion frenatus.)

But each time Jerry dived with us, he was puzzled over the melanopus. He’s a flip-flopper. When he did his dissertation at the University of Hawaii, he called the fish A. rubrocinctus, but later decided it was A. melanopus. Still, it didn’t sit right with him. Finally, using modern DNA tools, he, Joshua Drew and Les Kaufman have proven that it is in fact a new species, Amphiprion barberi, found only in Fiji, Tonga and Samoa.

Speaking of new species, Cat Holloway found and Dr. Gerald Allen confirmed and named a new pipefish a couple of years ago. The recent Undercurrent cover story on NAI’A said that it was an unnamed pipefish that we called it the NAI’A Pipefish after ourselves. No way, Jose! It is a genuinely new species, properly described and named, and we are honored to have had it named after us.

Because Dunckerocampus naia is so cryptic that good pictures are hard to get, nature illustrator, Kirsten Carlson, did this lovely painting for us.

Jerry is back diving with NAI’A next week; we can’t wait to see what new species we can up with this time!

There is lots of information on the diving forums and 99.9% goes right by me. But because those clever people at Google came up with their Alerts, I get to see the postings that pertain to NAI’A and Fiji diving. Buried in a bulletin board about Cozumel, for instance, is a thread about NAI’A that we want everyone in the world to read! Thank you Christi and the other past passengers who contributed their opinions. ScubaBoard, May 2008

Other interesting threads include Scubadiving, May 2008 and the recently begun Undercurrent forum.

NAI’A has continued her policy of luring the best Cruise Directors in the business to work with us. When Sonia decided to follow her heart and leave Fiji with our former crewman Eddie, we put out our feelers. Straight away Michele Hall wrote to us from PNG where she and the Howard Hall film crew were shooting their latest 3D IMAX film. She had just the girl: Jamie Quesenberry, who was just finishing a two-year contract on a liveaboard in PNG and had worked on a liveaboard in Palau before that.

Jamie just finished her first Tonga humpback season and sails out today as Cruise Director/Dive Instructor back in Fiji. She is everything a NAI’A Cruise Director needs to be: knowledgeable, passionate about diving, communicative, funny, and slightly nerdy when it comes to fish behaviour. You will love diving with her!

Our guest image pro concept is working out very well too. NAI'A and Fiji diving has always been video-friendly and the trip videos our Cruise Directors made in the past set a new standard in the industry. Since Jamie has her hands full as Cruise Director, we decided to bring in ringers to do the trip videos. Our first guest image pro was Mike Boom.

”Mike is obviously a superior anomaly as a Photo Pro. He has the reach of a Renaissance gentleman and scholar. Last evening he wowed our bunch with the finest end-of-the-week video I have ever seen on my live-aboard trips. The editing, music, pace and camera work are superb.” – Stan Waterman

The current shooter onboard is Nick Hope from the UK whose work is absolutely professional. Aside from his scowl on the last morning after he’s been up all night burning DVD’s, there’s nothing not to like about Nick and his video. We have an opening next year – interested? Recently unemployed bank presidents needn’t apply.

Best fishes,

Rob Barrel for the NAI'A family