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Wow it’s been a great month for diving!

A stand out feature in late 2008 & in January 2009 has been the great visibility. When that crystal clear viz coincides with bright sunshine NOTHING can beat Point-to-Point. This is an advanced dive we limit to experienced divers; minimum of 50 logged dives & deep diving experience & qualifications. Usually beginning at Charapoanna Point in a moderate to strong incoming current we quickly descend to 40 metres. Here, swarming schools of Jacks, barracuda & plenty of sharks mix with spanish mackerel, dog-toothed tuna, huge grouper, eagle & pygmy manta rays and myriads of other fish whilst the rapidly sloping reef is covered in colourful invertebrates. Because of deco limits, without too much delay we fin across the mouth of the channel towards Uepi Point. On the best days you can see the sandy channel bottom stretching far into the lagoon 100 metres or more. Then gazing seawards & downwards you cannot miss 'The Amphitheatre", a coral dress-circle carved into the channel face where it drops into the depths of "The Slot". As you fin forward you can see the clear outline of Uepi Point maybe 80 metres ahead through the circling sharks & dense fish schools. Reaching the brilliance of Uepi Point you catch your breath, monitor your gauges then settle in to expend the rest of your air observing the myriads of teeming life.

Naturally Chara & Uepi Points are both amazing dives in their own rights. Chara is great to descend on into a mass of life, then stage your way up, fin along the colourful outside reef-face, back along the reefcrest, out into the blue a little to mingle with the feeding fish schools, finishing with an arm-chair drift into the channel proper. And Uepi Point has an amazing diversity of life & plenty of action with GTs & Black Trevally charging schools of smaller feeding fish. The face at Uepi Point is lit up with fans, softcorals, whips, black coral, sponges & invertebrates. On the reeftop you can look forever at the encyclopaedia of marine life. And during January the aerolatus coral trout have been aggregating & spawning. The males are very big indicating the protection we have been able to provide. They are certainly territorial baring their fangs as they drive interlopers away. Prior to spawning the school of smaller females gathered in the sand patch on the reeftop waiting for the evening to unveil the staged dramatics of the males attempting to tempt them into rushing together up to the surface to release eggs into the current.

In January Uepi Point, Chara Point & Point-to-Point have produced just about the lot including: Dolphins, turtles, eagle rays, manta rays, pygmy mantas, huge fish schools, aggregations of spawning coral trouts, the largest aerolatus & polyphekadion trouts we have ever seen (1m plus) , numerous spanish mackeral, doggies, multiple free-swimming moray eels, fields of garden eels, egg laying cuttlefish, queensland grouper, numerous maori-wrasse, chevron & yellow tailed barracuda, and more.

The boat jetty, "Tavaurina' to us, has become a special hunting ground for different critters. This month a new type of mantis shrimp has been seen, along with plenty of juvenile batfish who seem to love this area. Often very large stingrays nestle in the soft sandy bottom. Razorfish & pyjama cardinals abound amongst the jetty blocks. Also a good night-dive.

Whilst sightings of dugong at Landoro (suburb not the dive site) towards the far end of the island, have been common amongst the staff there in the evenings, now a large individual is grazing late afternoon right in front of the beach accommodation. We have yet to get any images as he (?) seems to be cleverly just keeping out of sight when we fin-creep his way cameras inhand. At Landoro dugong have at times grazed right alongside the MLST jetty. Our time will come.

The manta rays have still been regularly feeding in the early mornings. Our checkout boat has made fairly regular sightings so most guests have returned to breakfast proudly showing nice manta images taken on snorkel. Several mantas have been seen along the outer reef dropoffs too.

One of my favourite fish is the greasy rock cod or "fuscos". This month they have aggregated at Inside Point, right in front of the main deck. These giants up to 1.2 metres are very territorial when frisky & defend their territory aggressively. This site is chosen as there is a maze of tunnels in what seems to be a solid rocky wall. As you approach a fusco they always spot you first, hold position then finally magically slink & disappear into their own tunnels or lairs. At times during January there were probably 60 of them on Inside Point, with more scattered along the whole channel, the walls, the shallows, the bottom.

Jill has been making some very nice video of the octopus on Inside Point. Whilst we have seen plenty of good action, actual mating has evaded us. More & more we notice the strong interaction between the octopus & various fish. Jill hopes to post some of this on the Uepi website so you can see for yourself.

Other popular dive experiences have been Mongo Passage with its teeming fish & brilliant golden soft coral wall; several days of absolutely awesome visibility at Penguin Reef & Bapita Passage; the colour of Binusa, a diverse site that is now very popular; the magic of the three different caves
at DekuDekuri.

All in all a superb month of diving with some of the clearest & bluest water ever.

Whilst Fiji & others have been getting belted by tropical lows & depressions, at Uepi we have had very variable weather, a nice mix of sun, warmth & calm, interspersed with relatively brief patches of cooling rain & some high winds.

I quote from "Reef & Rainforest - An Environmental Encyclopedia of Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands" Edvard Hviding ISBN 92-990041-0-2
For Marovo people, the "natural" environment" does not represent a "nature" separate from themselves. Rather they point out that their unique Marovo lifestyle does not just depend on, but more directly derives from, all the 'good things of land & sea' and the continuous engagement of men, women, and children with these things.
As they say in Marovo 'Those who cannot name the good things of sea & land, cannot find them, and therefore cannot eat or otherwise benefit from them, nor will they know how to look after them well'.

If we look at the world around us, then we surely realise the inherent wisdom of this statement. Today this sentiment that knowledge is one pre-requisite to wisdom is probably more relevant than ever before. How people use their knowledge is the determining factor.

In Marovo, being a relatively small but complex area, it is easy to see the various forces & influences working with & against each other. On the one hand we have the forces of commercialisation & exploitation. The major players are predominantly foreign interests, or derive from foreign interests. The focus is always money. On the other we have the forces of conservation & reason. Here the focus is quality of life for present & future generations with supporters coming from a wide spectrum; International environmental agencies to common individual Marovo persons.

Diving at Uepi provides an opportunity for an intense, dramatic, personal interaction with a vast array of complex life. It is fairly transparent to most people staying at Uepi how we are involved with, are part of, the interactions of the environment & human society around us. Regrettably some of our actions have a negative component, for example our use of fossil fuels. But we are, we think, contributing very positively to the protection of the magic environment we are based in. And happily we are finding that more & more our diving guests are concerned with the degrading world environment, the loss of quality of life, & are concerned about the future of the earth. It is reflected in their expressed attitudes to life & most importantly in the way they approach diving when at Uepi. Most of our divers view diving as "seriously good fun", a meaningful part of their actual lives, not just an entertainment they have paid for. So they like to be responsible for setting up their equipment, sharing their dive encounters & observations post dive, taking care not to damage corals or hassle marine life. Having accepted responsibility for themselves they are in the best position to fully benefit themselves.

Interestingly, we have had a simultaneous increase in the number of people wanting to paddle kayaks around the Maravo & discover its nature. We structure the kayaking trips so that it is a real experience not a pretend one. See www.kayaksolomons.com

International airfares to the Solomons are the cheapest ever. However there are many changes afoot with both the international & domestic schedules & fares. If you are confused at times so are we, but you can always seek help from Lee & Rhonda at our Tropical Paradise office in Melbourne.

Our website has a lot of good information to tell you what Uepi is really like. And Lee & Rhonda can answer all your questions.

We love the NATURE of Marovo
DIVE THE DREAM

Grant, Jill & all the Uepi Staff

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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.