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Uepi Island Resort - On the Edge of Marovo
May 2006

As the wet season passes, the Marovo experiences some of its most enjoyable tropical weather. Warm sunshine interspersed with light cool breezes during the day, supplemented by further cooling showers at night. Skies were overcast at times, an influence of the many cyclones hammering Australia. But diving is always an option at Uepi in any weather due to the favourable & complex geography & topography. By April & into early May some perfect weather meant great diving conditions, especially with the stronger incoming currents.

Also at this time many fish species aggregate to spawn & some spectacular displays by the males desperately trying to attract females were observed. This continues for several months, timed around the new moons. The real action occurs around dusk in a strong current, with male fish darting everywhere, changing colour, posturing & trying to entice the females to rush to the surface & release eggs with the male right alongside with his offering. The coral trout males were much bigger & I guess from a female fish outlook, more appealing, and the females could hardly wait.

The downside of such aggregations is that it attracts the yobbo fisherman from Australia, the type that wants to slaughter as many fish as they can, pack them in esky back to Oz & brag to their mates about it all. In Australia this kind of behaviour is strictly controlled so these types of people seek to exploit others with less control. In one distant section of Marovo the local people are seeing their resources exploited and damaged by such yobbos. This is the ugly side of tourism, so if you plan to come to the Solomon’s make sure the wholesaler/retailer who you use does not promote or exploit this particular practise of targeting aggregations. The Solomon’s are great & there is no need for Agents to use gimmicks to get business. Thankfully there are many responsible fishermen who would never seek to exploit this situation. If you are a responsible fisherman & want fabulous fishing let us know & we can put you on to a very responsible operator in a top fishing environment.

For a few days in April the eagle rays were also mating & we were all leaving our hot breakfast simmering on the breakfast table for a lookout position on the immediate waters edge to watch them glide or hang in the current, often only one or two metres away.

"Point to Point" dive is leaving such powerful impressions on divers. For genuinely advanced divers, it involves gliding down "Charapoana Point" through swirling schools of fish, a mid-water fin across the Uepi channel, with the vista of the Grand Canyon of Diving below you, ascend up Uepi Point past another mass of marine life, then stretch out the dive time to well over the hour in the coral gardens. If the current proves too strong to make Uepi Point you just drift back to the Dive Shop.

Another beautiful dive site we are refocussing on is "Fan City". We drop in half way to the Point from the Dive Shop, go deep & work our way towards the Point. This deeper site is really something and because of the influence of the channel topography has some fantastic vis with an outgoing or incoming current. "Fan City" is the backdrop & the fish variety is outstanding. Photographers struggle to get too far along the wall & turtles & rays hang out here too.

"General Store" has been outstanding with divers asking to return again & again. A long way from any passage it almost always has good to great vis, unless clouded on top by a rare 'big' swell stirring up the shallows. Renowned for big schools of Bumphead Parrotfish & almost everything else (that’s why it is called "General Store") you cannot see it all in one dive.
April & May has seen an abundance of Pilot Whales. Twice on the "Bapita Trip" large pods of 30-40 have surfaced & lolled right alongside the boat. On one occasion there were two Pacific Sailfish leaping & tail walking amongst the whales. A chorus of "Didn’t know where to look or which way to point the camera!!" erupted. Just yesterday a pod of 8 Pilots swam slowly past a group of snorkellors, eyeing them off. Our later search located them but they wanted nothing to do with bubbles & cameras; but it is a great feeling drifting along in the deep ocean hoping they will check you out. In any case, the 'blue' out there is so intense, worth the effort in itself.

A few days before, we did have some luck with Spinner Dolphins, hanging in the blue at 20m with them checking us out. Jill’s dolphin calling has definitely improved; we just need a few new verses to keep them around longer or some gymnastic manoeuvres. Boring humans!!

In early April, Uepi hosted a UNESCO World Heritage Meeting. Involving about 60 guests, international & local, it focussed on determining what areas of the Solomons had heritage value. In the late 1990s a previous effort to list Marovo had been abandoned due to the inability of the Solomon Government to participate. A recce visit in early 2005 convinced WH they should try again. Five potential WH sites (cultural & natural) were identified. To be considered for listing there are ten criteria, one being needed for nomination. Marovo had 8 out of 10 & it was obvious that WH are very keen to get it listed. There is a lot of work to do & the main impediment is getting action other than words from the Solomon Government.

The recent civil response to the election of a new Prime Minister is not the action of a wild rascal element. It is part of a genuine grass-roots response by the oppressed people who are demanding that they get the leadership they deserve to become a functioning democracy. Be reassured it is not and has never been anti-white or anti Australian, but an internal political matter in a young immature nation. The tourism industry is the ideal industry to lead the nation into the future. The alternative is further exploitation by foreigners of the natural resources of the Solomons. Solomon Airlines is operating quite well & trying hard. The hotels are operating. Honiara is safe, much safer than many parts of Australia. Please help get this message around.

The SE trades will begin maybe this month, maybe June. A new set of conditions, a changing underwater world. We cannot wait, how about you?

'Leana' Grant, Jill, Lee, Rhonda, Colin & all of 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.