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UEPI DIVE REPORT – Feeling it, Seeing it, Touching it..
November 2007

Do not know why but a few lines from a seventies ‘THE WHO’ song keeps running through my mind. “see me …. feel me …….. touch me e e e” . Probably because it is the time of year when the Marovo is heavily laden with sights, smells, sensations & stimulus. Many trees are shedding leaves but growing before your eyes, the weather is balmy & hot or breezy & cool or wet or wild. Storms can conjure before your eyes then disappear. The ocean can be cold, warm or hot, on the same dive; viz can be ordinary then crystal clear a few minutes later. The fish are revving up for an extended period of spawning by claiming territory & practising ancient rituals. At times a dive site will be going off than a short time later hibernating. But always there is ‘something in the air’.

This is the season for high tides - very high tides as it turns out - higher than ever! Of course there is no such thing as global warming or rising sea levels so it must be the earth sinking (certainly a factor for some tsunami hit areas west of us which actually have experienced ups & downs). And not that signing any protocol will make a scrap of difference: It needs consumers to change their habits and who amongst us is going to do that! But along with these highest tides have piggybacked some very strong winds. For those of you who know Uepi, the Tavaurina (boat) jetty was awash with waves. The spray from the beach breaks was hosing down the bungalows. The kayak shed was full of floating kayaks. Cyclone Guba (mysteriously unnamed at the time) was the cause. A few days before, the Concrete jetty near the Dive Shop was awash with swells sweeping along the Uepi Passage & under the Dive Shop, Store & over a wide area. We have raised the Dive Shop jetty level twice in the past 8 years but it was afloat & the boys had to rope it to the mangrove tree to stop it rafting away. Now all is oily calm.

With the incoming tides during the day the fish aggregations gather. Plenty of action on the Points. Even with an outgoing current the upper Uepi Point has an area on the face which is almost always blue, clean & full of life; it hardly ever misses. This is a top night dive site too. On the Point itself we have filmed a fish we are still trying to identify, always something new.

The shark action on Charapoanna has been awesome; these guys really do not want divers trespassing on their domain; hard stares & ever closer sweeps with body language clearly saying get out of my feeding zone. This dive starts at a deep level amongst huge schools of big-eye jacks & other fish. We ascend using progressively shallower hand-hold stations as the current is often strong. At every level there is activity, much of it audible as potential mouthfulls avoid getting swallowed by large mouths. With large black & giant trevallies driving at the myriad of surface feeders the resulting disturbances often compel the whalers to dash vertically upward from the depths hoping for a snack.

Mongo Passage has also been at its best. The golden soft-coral & white-coral cathedral wall has had plenty of fish schools streaming down it, barracuda schools flowing along it & the top predators doing their business. The bonus for me is the wall at the front, flushed clean by the incoming tide hitting it, rich with invertebrates & reef-fish. Binusa is another favourite which like North Log always produces memorable dives, especially for those who like looking & finding. The combination of wall, a deeper rich ridge, followed by the shallower coral gardens has been keeping the photographers busy, especially the macro enthusiasts.

Right on cue the Octopus have been mating. Whilst observed widely on many reefs Inside Point is most prolific with plenty of closely located ‘octo-homes’ in an easy 10m depth. So it is simple to spend the necessary time watching & waiting until the octo-action starts. The males sit up on rocks for other males to see. Then without any apparent signals they take off & meet in an arena sheltered from the normally mild current. The resultant fights are epic; with two males becoming a squirming, rolling, rotating, pulsating ball of energy. Finally the loser capitulates & with difficulty manages to break free, jetting off as a dark coloured streak. The victor chases for a while then returns to display himself around the area, quickly returning to the admiring female to begin the courtship foreplay. Sometime later, female sensitivities having been well satisfied, the males 3rd arm rolls out like a fire-hose, into her sperm deposit bank & a deposit is made. Probably just my imagination but the colours of the octopus this year have been more vivid than before. Beautiful animals, at their most brilliant when mating.

Kokoana Passage has always been a colourful dive with a heavily covered wall, well sheltered from the brunt of foul weather. A recent kayak trip (www.kayaksolomons.com) terminated at a nearby lagoon island. A quick change into dive gear & a top dive before returning back to Uepi for lunch ended several days of top kayaking around Marovo Lagoon. These paddlers along with Rodily as kayak guide, stayed at a village & two eco-lodges. They went snorkelling on the ‘toba’ (outer reef) for hours a day, met the warm friendly Marovo people & learnt about the Marovo way of life. As one paddler was a producer for BBC Wildlife his keen enthusiasm was validation of our efforts to set up these unique kayaking experiences.

PT109 one of our faster Honda 150HP powered boats has just zoomed away for a day on the Bapita trip. With all divers returnees (most several times) they are waving at the remaining diners at the breakfast table with wide grins as they head of full of expectation of great dives on a boat wreck, the fantastic coral of Penguin, the scenic sinkhole of Bapita & WWII plane wrecks.

I can see the current starting to come in, feel intuitively the fish schools gathering, sense the warm moist tropical air touching my skin.

What is that old Marovo Lagoon saying? “Wouldn’t be dead for coconuts”, that’s the one!

To those of you who came to visit in 2007 we send our special regards & best wishes.

To all of our Uepi friends we wish you the Merriest Christmas & the Happiest & Healthiest New Year.

From Grant, Jill, Lee, Rhonda, Gayle & Ian & 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.