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‘A day in the diving life’ –
Uepi Island Resort Dive Report
October 2005

Spring 05 has been pure Marovo Magic: Blue skies, calm breezes, warm days, rain shower cooled nights: The kind of diving conditions that dreams are made of. And the critters & creatures must have heard how good it was because they all came along and joined in.

To give you an idea: Diary - October 01:

The first morning group back came back to loudly proclaim “Robert (Dive Guide) is “The Man”. The Elbow had produced (deep breath), a friendly large hammerhead, white-tips, Leopard shark, black-tips, grey-reef sharks; manta-ray, eagle-ray, cuttlefish, a beautiful scorpion-fish, plus all the ‘normal’ nudibranchs, corals & fish that swarm around this site. Dive plan: “Go & sit at The Elbow and watch it pass before your eyes”. Too easy folks!

The second morning group was on their way to Deku Dekuru when a few minutes under way four Orcas, one medium sized female with three young, surfaced to relax. For the next half-an-hour the divers snorkeled with these magnificent creatures. Digital cameras ran hot. Then on to dive Deku with its brilliant scenery and colours. Crystal clear water, reef reflections on the mirror water surface, shafts of lights and underwater views of the green rainforest & blue sky. On the return journey who should re-appear but the friendly Orcas for another friendly snorkel session.

Photo copyright Grant Kelly

This was too much for some of the first group, so we ‘Orcanised’, grabbing our snorkels, videos & cameras & headed off. After about 15 minutes we saw four huge fins slowly slicing through a flat blue ocean. Over the side and the four graceful giants slid elegantly and effortlessly past, just metres away. A quick return to the boat to catch up, then in again for filming, photos and the most fun, just watching. After a dozen or so dives we left them to their journey and a humbled group of divers returned to Uepi. It was with a sense of sadness we departed, with a strong hope that these beautiful creatures will flourish and survive in an increasingly difficult world.

Photo copyright Gayle Revill

Some Orca chasers, having missed the huge fish schools on the afternoon dive, opted for a night dive on Uepi Point. Colourful during the day, the Point is brilliant at night. We dropped in at last light & watched the fish going to bed, the last frantic attempts of the hungry to eat, the emergence of the nightlife. On this dive the reef was typically alive with exotic shrimps, basket stars, slipper-lobsters, nocturnal crabs, and many, many painted crayfish. Bright reflecting spotlighted white-tip sharks or rays. One fan is home not only to long-nose hawkfish who are reluctant to move at night, but also to pygmy sea-horses who can be found free-swimming in the general area as they hunt for food. We plan about an hour for night dives but somehow they drag on for much longer, always one more thing to see.

An awesome day in the life! We hope you have had a day like this recently!

Every diver who regularly dives a reef must surely think, “Where did all the fish come from?” or “Where did all the fish go?”. The variations in populations are astounding. Over September we have had more harlequin ghost pipefish than for many years combined. Hard to know why but these flamboyant creatures have been appearing on crinoids & fans. We hope they stay for a time as whilst they would seem to be easy targets for cameras & videos, in fact they are much more of a challenge. That has me thinking so I just might grab my camera & head off. Coming?

“Leana via” from Grant, Jill, Peter, Deliver, Robert, Rodily & all 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.