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Hammerheads and Volcanoes
May 2005

The Solomon Islands is well on the way to recovering from a few years of political turmoil that stopped the country in its tracks. A rabid Australian media made the most of it and demonstrated their over-developed imagination and under-developed sense of reality. Despite this the diving public demonstrated that they are a breed apart when it comes to doing what they love best - Diving. When the going gets tough the tough get diving it seems.

I guess that reflects what a different destination the Solomons is. With about 1000 islands scattered from New Guinea to Vanuata the island groups all have their own character. Marovo is the longest salt water lagoon in the world and is part of a large atoll style system. Two large volcanic islands, New Georgia & Vangunu, are central. Both are extinct, unlike the submarine volcano Kavachi, 15 miles further south & a spectacular sight to behold. As New Georgia & Vangunu have sunk, lagoons have formed bounded by a barrier reef. The tectonic plate has then tilted & the northern section of atoll reef, on which sits Uepi, has been uplifted about 10m; whilst the southern section has been sunk a similar amount. All along Marovo Lagoon we have raised barrier reef, covered in jungle, the outer extremes plunging into 2000m of water. On the inner edge a most beautiful lagoon. Channels dissecting from the deep water into the shallow lagoon add even more diverse dive sites. It would be hard to design a more perfect dive locality, with close at hand dive sites and protection from the weather in all but the most extreme conditions.

After a bit of a break the hammerheads have been very active recently with multiple sightings at The Elbow almost every dive. The younger adults are sometimes very active, moving quickly and closely checking out the divers at times. Perhaps they are following the eagle rays, a favourite food of theirs? At the same time, a lot of very big green turtles are gliding about. They seem to be attracted by the divers, swimming between them, day or night. We have all been frantically trying to get the best photo of a very nice Halimeda Pipefish recently spotted. These fish are so well camouflaged it can take a lot of looking to spot them, even when you have a fair idea where they hang-out. We have been doing quite a few night dives, mainly on Uepi Point, where at times the crayfish are everywhere, it seems. Invariably we plan a 60 minute dive but keep staying longer & longer, having our dinner at very late hours.

For some years we have held off diving Lumalihe Passage as it was subject to a land dispute. That has now been resolved to our satisfaction so this big & beautiful deep passage can be enjoyed again. Great passage wall diving, plenty of life on the crests & lots of nice shallow areas to extend your dive time over the hour. Another similar but smaller passage further away is Kokoanna. This has a section of wall thickly carpeted with invertebrates & diverse fish life.

As the slightly cooler months approach, the south-east trades threaten, we look forward to the busy times ahead.

Leana, Grant & Jill

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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.