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What's happening at Uepi
January 2007

"And the seasons they go round & round ....." Joni Mitchell had it right for sure. As New Year 2007 approached the heat & humidity rose, tempered by cooling sea breezes & rain-showers at night. A long drought in December ensured brilliant visibility with clear blue skies & the reefs lit up like Christmas trees. With this unsubtle stimulus we prepared for the Staff Party Christmas feast. Our customary pig-hunt only yielded a lone porker, but it cooked well in the motu (earth oven). But the fine calm days ensured the big yellowfin tuna stayed deep & the fish serves were less than normal.

After almost exactly 12 months since the last invasion we have had an explosion of Ghost Pipefish, along with rarer sightings of Halimeda Pipefish. Amazing how we will not see a ghost-pipefish for about a year, then all of a sudden there are lots of them for a few weeks, after which they all disappear once more. Coinciding with an influx of very good photographers these pipefish needed a good pair of sunnies to counter the barrage of flash directed their way. As they became used to the paparazzi they seemed to adjust & not worry much at all.

In the meantime the 'groupers' are beginning to aggregate for spawning with the male "aerolatus" coral trout again individually bigger than in previous years, a sign of a healthy fishery. The large greasy -rock cods "fuscoguttardis" are also gathering early, as they did in 2006 & we can expect to see the wall crest at Inside Point lined with territorial males up to 1.2m long & quite reluctant to move.

Suffice to say the excellent visibility meant those with wide-angle lenses enjoyed those brilliant fans & super blue backgrounds. Almost any dive site produces great wide-angle in these conditions & Fan-City, an extensive splash of coral fans along the Uepi Channel wall has been stunning. For over a month an excellent cleaning station on upper Uepi Point has been occupied by four varieties of shrimp picking away at two morey eels. The photographers were literally lining up for sessions. A recently spotted fish, just now identified as the very pretty 'leopoard blennie', is proving very wary & difficult to approach for a photo.

The latest good news from the weatherman is that the El Nino is weakening so the threat of warm water damaging coral reefs in the SW Pacific is minimising.

Recently we have been exploring a bit around the Hele Bar area, a special place. This follows on from where the vertical wreck "Taiyo Boat" is located along a stretch of sandy islands with green jungle lagoons flushed by blue ocean water from the Coral Sea. Once again we dived Faraway & a favourite of mine, Soft Coral Wall. Here about 100m of wall is intensively covered with brilliant fans & soft corals & the fishlife is excellent. It borders an inter-island lagoon which fulfils the "Blue Lagoon" stereotype so well we came back another day just to snorkel & even catch a few modest body waves.

Mongo Passage is in very good shape. The glorious golden soft corals which flourish on the deeper walls have been complimented by a vigorous expansion of the white soft corals which cover "the cathedral' area, like never before. Add in the great fish life, despite being heavily fished by the local villagers, the front face invertebrate gardens & Mongo has been a winner. On a recent occasion we misjudged the tides & diverted to "Binusa" a Marovo word for painting. Whilst the name refers to a cliff-face it is just as appropriate to underwater. Here twin sharp narrow points covered in corals plunge to the depths whilst an easy fin in either direction leads to shallow healthy corals gardens. I am going back soon.

As I finish this Jason & friend walk in exhilarated by diving with a friendly pod of spinner dolphins at Landoro Gardens. This is the second encounter today as some were spotted this morning on "Point-to-Point", an advanced dive across the channel-mouth.

With some quite cold water (for us) flooding the area we have been expecting more than haphazard hammerhead sightings. Finally they are happening with seven sighted on one dive, followed by more regular trios, couples & individuals. One 'hammer' may be the largest seen ever from all accounts, even when we calibrate for normal diver exaggeration.

Our New Years Eve was again a good party nite. Not much table dancing but the group singing & dancing was as spirited as ever. Bohemian Rhapsody on the DVD projected screen always brings out the exhibitionist & cultural side of people. The huge roast turkey meal was devoured. Quick games of Uepi Football, "Ugabugga", and 'see how far you can put the Solbrew bottle without falling on your face' were vigorously contested, seemingly over in no-time, with everyone there for 'that moment' and quite a bit later. Did we dive the next morning? Of course we did.

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Have a fantastic diving 2007!
Grant, Jill & all the Uepi Staff

We sincerely wish to thank the following people for use of their photographs in our website:

Peter Lange, Peter Pinnock, Oceania Films/Matt Guest, Eric Cheng, Fred Bavendam, Andy Belcher, Manuela Kirschner, Louise Murray, Roberto Rinaldi, Mark Strickland/Oceanic Impressions, Jill Kelly, Grant Kelly, Wes Kelly and Jason Kelly.