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A November to Remember - UEPI ISLAND RESORT
November 2008.

What a diverse month, so much has happened!

The Manta Rays are still cruising around, although as the shutters closed on November the lagoon water became very clear, warmed a little & the food stocks for Mantas diminished with fewer sightings as December broke. A quick check of the Sea-surface Temperature data showed that a pool of 30C plus was over the western Solomons stretching across to Kavieng & beyond. The rest of the Pacific was below 30C. We recorded some 31C water temps but this was interspersed with much cooler water pools. 32C is about the point where a few corals begin to bleach so thankfully we did not reach that point & the corals are in good nick. With some short periods of stronger winds the kiteboards & Hobies have had a bit of action.

The coming New Year period is THE big test for the validity of rising sea levels. Since the late 90s the sea-level has been rising & in Marovo many people have had to respond; raise jetties, shift kitchens, even shift villages. This has been in the face of initial blatant denial by the developed countries (who have funded an international monitoring program) that the sea level has been rising. Early attempts to explain away what is obvious to millions of Pacific Islanders relied on 'anomalies'. That is everything was normal and we will not mention the 'anomalies' as they are well.... 'anomalies'. Now don't you worry about that! I guess those Pacific Islanders who already have been forced to move because of inundation by sea water can say "I had to move because of an anomaly". But then from seemingly out of nowhere some genius worked out that various planets were in a unique alignment and that for a finite time sea-levels had in fact been rising, would reach a peak in late 2007 / early 2008, then slowly subside. This nicely explained away the 'anomalies' whilst still denying the fact of rising sea-levels. It will be interesting to see if the tides recede a little this New Year or not. If you look at a Star Almanac you realise that the exact positions & orbits of countless stars obscure stars have been precisely & accurately known for a long time. It is indeed amazing that the position of those large heavenly bodies called planets were overlooked in this ephemeris & that tides could be accurately predicted without them in past times.

November had some great viz at times. We also had some periods of average/lesser viz in the very upper water column. Some of this was due to coral spawning, dinoflagelate blooms, fresh water after heavy rain and stirred up sediment after storms. But as always there was an abundance of animal action. Cuttlefish were mating and laying eggs prolifically. Some of them were totally unperturbed by the presence of divers, making for great video & stills. Jill has been filming the female holding the egg before she places it in protection of the branching coral. Octopus came out to occupy lairs in prominent places, one right where the dive boats back out of the diveshop. To date we are still waiting expectantly for octopus mating displays to happen before our eyes.

The fish schools around the jetties have grown into large populations. Comprising Lined Scad, Black Spot Snapper, Moses Perch, Diamond fish & Sergeant majors they have been subject to vigorous attacks by Trevally & Sharks. The Blue Trevally cruise up & down the reefs waiting for a meal. Often working together they herd their prey, then when the confusion builds they charge in & attack. At Tavaurina jetty even huge GTs have been getting easy take-a-ways.

On Uepi & Charapoanna Points the size & number of GTs & Black Trevallies has been setting new records. On one dive at Uepi Point a large grouper was repeatedly darting in trying to grab a weakened fish from under a coral shelter. As he did an army of very large GTs & Blacks accompanied him. There was a large amount of fish-power being exercised & we could feel the vibrations & hear the noise.

For a couple of days in November Peter, Rodily & I (Grant) worked with a BBC film crew on a "Soltai" longline tuna boat. We had done this earlier in the year to get footage for the upcoming series "South Pacific". This shoot was the last shoot for the whole series & we had a very high speed camera to try & film the capture of a tuna on a lure, the path thru the air, the release from the barbless hook, the crash onto the deck & subsequent passage into the collection area. This camera is a marvel: When you slow down the sequence you can see the eddy patterns & water flow caused by the fish's thrashing fins. Tuna are vigorous & very strong & it is quite a sight. Again as before we had mixed feelings watching the end of a beautiful animal but polefishing is the most sustainable & reasonable technique in contrast to purse-seiners & longline fishing, both of which are very damaging with lots of by-catch & near extermination of a school of tuna. The cameraman, in this case Richard Woolcombe who worked on the BBC "Galapagos", "Blue Planet" & "Planet Earth" series, had to adapt to the technique of filming away then releasing the shutter at the moment when he judged the previous few seconds had captured the shot he wanted. He could do a preview of the shot in the water & decide to write it to the hard-drive. This review & storage took some time & was not easy to do drifting with a working fishing boat in choppy seas amongst a school of feeding tuna, birds, fishing poles & who knows what else. The weather was a little marginal but Richard & his camera technician Rudi are fairly happy with what they got.

Richard also did a few dives around Uepi whilst they waited for equipment to arrive, in fact was very enthusiastic & dived whenever he could. He just loved the diversity & quality of Uepi Point saying "this is what corals reefs are meant to be like". Point-to-Point was also firing & rated highly: The combination of the drama of Charapoana action, a tour across the channel, then chilling out amongst the colour & diversity of Uepi Point is a heck of a dive for anyone. On the way to an Elbow dive Richard spotted the frenzy of a baitball. Jumping in on snorkel he saw over 60 sharks furiously attacking a diminishing baitball. With no camera or other divers willing to join him he reluctantly cut short the snorkel.

The Spinner Dolphins have also been plentiful with very good encounters by divers & snorkellors. Some of the snorkellors who swam with mantas also swam with dolphins, quite an experience for them. Many of the divers had never been underwater with dolphins before & were wrapped, walking around with big smiles. Rosie, a 350+ diver, spent time walking around the Resort with a dreamy grin on her face, just so she could say to anyone she bumped into "Guess what, I swam with dolphins". Those who were not lucky enough to swim with dolphins regularly saw them mosey out in front of the maindeck feeding & frolicking, including in the mornings as we served breakfast.

It’s been a while since we had top-line Uepi sunsets, but WOW we had some in November. People used to say we painted our sunset photos, & now they say we Photoshop them, but believe me they are real. Have a look at the enclosed image of Josh with a cold Solbrew backlit by a sunset, says it all.

Seghe airstrip is now alive & well. After about a month of heavy machinery running about it is now wide, flat, drained & all-weather. Thankfully the long & costly transfers to Ramata, scenic they were are over, Seghe being about a half-hour away. With three airlines servicing the international connections to Honiara, there is plenty of choice. PacificBlue, SkyAirWorld & Solomon Airlines are all competing to bring you to "Somewhere completely different" as it says in the SIVB Slogan.

"Cho(n)gaChi(n)ga Ihana": In Marovo this means 'jump in the sea for fish' & is the name for Osprey. The Rosie of "I've been swimming with Dolphins" fame was bushwalking when she saw a largish eagle style bird on the forest floor, trying to evade her, but obviously in difficulty. It turned out to be a youngish (maybe 1 year old) Osprey that had totally dislocated its joint above the right claw. We initially thought it was broken but once we had it on the operating table saw it was a severe dislocation. There was no broken skin. We realigned the joint which seemed to fit back in place quite well. Then we splinted it & hoped for the best. Our fear was that the blood supply was seriously damaged. 'Chonga' as we named him seemed to quickly sense we were helping him & did not try to attack us, sitting quietly as we nursed him, not even trying to fly off which he might have. Needless to say we all quickly became very attached to this magnificent bird & built a nice cage for his recovery. Chonga fed a little on fresh fish & even sat on a low perch we provided. We realised that unless he regained the full use of his claw he would never be able to catch fish, in which case we would have to always feed him once we released him. But unfortunately it appears the blood supply was damaged & some flesh in the claw began to rot. We tried to debride the wound but unsuccessfully & after another night Chonga died. We often watch the Osprey fish just in front of our maindeck. They soar down, grab the fish then after gaining a little height swoop momentarily down to change or improve their grip. People who are not familiar with this almost always say "Hey the Osprey almost dropped the fish". But Osprey always carry out this ritual & never lose the fish. It’s a pity Chonga will not be around to make people say this.

During November we provided support for a visit by a team of US Doctors working for the non-profit Help a Friend Foundation. This came about due to a previous diving visit by Suzanne & Allan Daly. Seeing the great need for support for Seghe Hospital they fund raised to get medical supplies & equipment. Also a team of volunteer Doctors was enrolled to hold a series of clinics in five villages ranged about central Marovo & several sessions of clinics at Seghe. These guys worked really hard & carried out intense & wide -ranging consultations. Along with this the first stage of a solar power facility was constructed at Seghe Hospital. All of the volunteers were divers, some straight from OWD courses in land-locked USA, so their first experiences of diving amongst brilliant coral reefs & in salt water was an exciting time for them. Another example of the common bond between divers making good things happen. For more information see www.uepi.com "Community News"

In the last few days of November Wade Fairley & Frederique "Fred" Ollivier have anchored with us to get footage for a natural marine environment DVD aimed at the Solomon Communities. University of Queensland are helping fund expenses for this but Wade & Fred are donating their time & expertise. Fred has Ph.D in Arctic Ecology & they will be remembered for the Emperor Penguins footage in the BBC "Blue Planet" & "Planet Earth". Having spent some time in the Solomons over a long time frame, including working in 2008 on "South Pacific". They want to contribute to further education about the value of the marine environment.

As I said, "What a diverse month, so much has happened!". Amongst all these happenings it has been diving business as usual: Big fish schools, small critters, animal behaviour, rare nudibranchs, wrecks, caves, dropoffs, new divers being certified, and more. For myself I had another very special night-dive right off the diveshop & added to my collection of exotic shrimp images. At North Log Jason found a lovely shrimp with two other juvenile shrimps alongside a spotted gut living crab, all on the same black holothurian & took some very nice macro. Jill filmed so much cuttlefish coupling & egg laying cuttlefish she needs a break before she edits it. Guest who "do not normally like wrecks" came back raving about the Tayio boat wreck. The Sinkhole was so brilliant at times with water so clear one guest drank some in case it was indeed Gin. The golden soft corals at Mongo Passage are as prolific & as stunning as ever. Binusa & nearby General Store have been getting "send me back there anytime" reviews. With plenty of sunshine & good tides & currents the amount of snorkelling has been huge, predominantly along the home reef but also on trips to various divesites & of course the beautiful Landoro Gardens.


Spotted eagle ray	Garden eel

Batfish	Nudibranch

By the time you read this it will be 2009.
Happy New Year & we look forward to seeing all our good friends & some new faces in 2009.

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.