Uepi Island Resort - Solomon Islands - News archives

Welcome to Uepi Island Resort
Natural Beauty Harmony Excitement Indulgence

Uepi News

Diving the Dream
July 2005

Hammerheads sharks are shaped like Uepi Island (and vice versa), with the resort facilities occupying the tail. During late June & early July the 'Great' & 'Scalloped' Hammerheads have been as active as they have ever been. Most dives at The Elbow, and occasionally elsewhere, have produced 'hammers'. This very morning 13 hammers seriously buzzed around the divers on The Elbow. Most encounters are brief but sometimes these surreal graceful creatures come up from the deep for a good look & sometimes they glide overhead. Eagle Rays, turtles and a very large, seemingly resident Dogtooth tuna mix with the usual fish soup.

Last week some 'amphibian divers' from Sydney spent 50 minutes hanging out at The Elbow sighting a big hammer as it flashed underneath, spending the balance scrutinizing the invertebrate carpet adorning the wall. Then a further 40 minute cruise along to Elbow Caves & Landoro Gardens also had its moments. A big Manta Ray, mouth wide open, would have collided with Tim if he had not taken evasive action. Unconcerned it scattered the rest of us as it brushed underneath with Karen showing that even split fins cannot keep pace with a hungry cruising manta.

The visibility, great at times, was sometimes below average in the passages following a combination of heavy rain and big tides. Not that visibility is everything and we can almost always find good viz on the outer walls. The bigger tides produce the bigger fish schools and some huge aggregations resulted, often highlighted on our advanced Point-to-Point Dive.

Several "Bapita" day trips have really produced fine diving in great viz. This 'must do' scenic tour with a quad-dive combo of a sinkhole-dive, an unsurpassed panorama of corals of an offshore pinnacle reef at times with silvertip sharks, a unique vertical (stern down bow up) shipwreck, plus two WWII fighter wrecks means this trip is often acclaimed by well travelled divers as the best days diving they have done. To ice the cake our Deku dive-site has been well dare I say it..... pristine.The Dark Cave followed by the Open Cave before the amazing Hidden Cave is unique.

With another month or so of cooling trade-winds we are looking forward to some more good diving.

Regrettably the Solomon Islands Government did not support the anti-whaling vote at the recent IWC meeting. Even more regrettably some shortsighted organisations and individuals have suggested boycotts on the Solomons to, I guess, teach Solomon Islanders a lesson.

Nothing could be more counter-productive. This would have the effect of keeping the Solomons dependant on Aid, which is what makes them vulnerable, as in this situation where the Japanese have tied in their significant Aid contributions to the whaling issue. As the Solomons have never killed a whale, have no whaling industry & as far as is known the International whalers have never legally killed a whale in the Solomon waters, the suggestion to punish the Solomons is very wayward. It would be more appropriate to focus such efforts on the whalers themselves; that’s right the 'big boys' Japan & Norway.

One such punitive minded organisation is the International Dive Association who has de-listed the Solomons as a desirable diving destination. The fact is that the tourism industry in the Solomons is the most environmentally responsible sector in the country. Organisations such as World Heritage have publically recognised this and in the Solomons are actively supporting tourism as the way to counter other unsustainable industries. If you want to help support the environment in the Solomons you should support industries that do not over-exploit natural resources. This provides necessary alternative sources of income. As divers you can continue to support diving and have a clear conscience. If you are committed (beyond just talking) to attacking whaling then tackle those who are primarily responsible and maybe stop driving Toyotas, using Sony video cameras or become pro-active in other ways.

The voices of visiting divers can in the long run be very influential in making the Solomons care more about the environment. So when you visit Uepi make sure you tell everyone how great the diving is, how they should protect it and how valuable a financial resource it will become in the future as tourism flourishes.

'Liana Via' from Grant & Jill & 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.