Sam Snaaps

We all know that too much of anything is bad for you, even the things we love most in the world. Too much time underwater, staring at your favorite sea-creatures can oversaturate your body with nitrogen if you’re not careful, or too much cheese can even bring on an intolerance if you’re not careful, as I found out several years ago. And certainly too much bad weather forcing you do dive the same site 10 days in a row can dampen ones excitement to dive. Nevertheless, to my relief, we had some fantastic fortune with the weather this week, allowing us to finally get some epic diving in!

Dreamhouse.

Being our first opportunity to get back out to our big sites, we had a lot of demand for a trip to dreamhouse to search for the hammerheads! We filled the boat and made the journey along the rugged and mountainous Fijian coastline. To our surprise, our mooring had been destroyed by the weather, so our navigation had to rely on nearby landmarks! We did our best to locate the reef by lining ourselves up with the right beach, and then looking down from the boat, as on a clear and calm day, you can see a lighter blue colour where the shallower reef reflects more light than the deep, darker blue water around it. Once happy that we were in the right place, we put the engine in neutral, did all our zips and clips up, and jumped into the big blue swimming pool, like hungry gannets taking it in turns to dive into a school of tasty fish.

We made two attempts at finding the hammers. On the first, we spent a short amount of time swimming in the blue; less than 20 minutes, at about 20 meters depth. We didn’t spend any longer as it isn’t much fun swimming in the open water and not seeing much life and so we made our way back to the reef to watch the reef sharks, schooling fish, and corals.

The schooling barracuda can often indicate that the hammerheads are nearby, often many meters below, but this week we have seen mostly reef sharks. On the right are three black-tips, and one white-tip just entering the frame on the bottom corner!

When you are swimming through the blue, your mind often plays tricks on you. You see unusual shaped plankton floating past which your mind tries to make sense of, giving you the impression that the hammerhead you’re desperately trying to find is right there, when in reality it is just a small piece of organic material stuck, and at total mercy of the currents. It is also very silent, unlike being on a reef where you can here constant shrimps clicking, and clown fish grunting, and scraping where the parrotfish are chewing on coral skeletons.

There are many species of clownfish (also known as anemone fish) and nearly all of them have a symbiotic relationship with the anemone they live in! In return for protection, the clownfish keep the nasty stinging tentacles clean!

The second attempt we made was totally dedicated to the hammerheads, and we spent the entire time searching, as our divers desperately wanted to see them. We came across schooling barracuda, surgeonfish, and the odd grey reef shark, but again no hammerheads! I was quite frustrated because we did everything we could to give ourselves the best chance to see these incredibly illusive creatures, and to return to the boat unsuccessful meant our mood was a bit damp and gloomy, like February at home in England…

The site is a peculiar one, as there seems to be a significant process which influences the productivity and the distribution of the fish around the site. The general opinion on this is that it is very tidally dependent, and on a flood tide the activity is always on the western side of the reef, and on the ebb tide, it is reversed, and everything is productive on the eastern side. Strangely if you find yourself on the ‘wrong’ side, it is totally barren, not even a tiny clownfish in sight. We always target the flood tide to see the hammerheads, and apparently this rule is what gives the best success rate of finding them, as they seemingly follow the tidal current at this time.

I am desperate to dedicate some time to truly understand the mechanics of this site because so far it has been very hit or miss to follow this rule, and I’m believing that there are other important mechanics we need to understand. Both attempts we made earlier this week were on the flood tide, therefore we expected to have a lot more success, however both times, we left scratching our salty wet heads.

Namena

If you leave Savusavu bay, head south-west for 1 hour 15 minutes by boat, you will wash up on a beautiful, remote, and very small atoll named Namena. There are no inhabitants on Namena, as cyclone Winston destroyed everything there 8 years ago, and caused havoc to the reef as well. But now, if you take the time to go for a dive there, it is utterly magical.

We had a trip there this week, my first time back in 5 years, and I had only been 2 times before that, so I was shaking with excitement. Despite the island’s petite size, it is surrounded by an enormous ring of reef, with a shallow lagoon in between. Our first stop on this reef was a place called Chimneys– named after the two enormous pillars which rise from a sandy 30m deep seabed. This site is incredibly dramatic, and would make an epic dive even without any life on them. They both rise perfectly vertically up to within 5m of the surface, so the method of the dive is to descend on one, circling like a helter-skelter fairground ride, and then crossing to the second, where you ascend with the same spiral. I cannot understate how much life was on these pillars. Not a centimeter of room spare for another coral to grow, and overflowing with fish, I could spend days making my way through this site, trying to uncover every little secret species that is hiding within. For me the highlight was waiting atop the second chimney, and watching all the activity below. It felt like being a bird and watching over a colourful carnival in Brazil.

I thought it would be hard to beat that site, but honestly our next destination – Grand Central Station, did a bloody good job of trying. Remembering this was the same group who came to see hammerheads at dreamhouse, but didn’t, this detail will become important later on.

Grand Central is know for having fish life as busy as the New York train station, and is a sheer wall the descends to incredible depths. We swam along the wall, and shared the water with the most exotic collection of predators – reef sharks, huge tuna, and more schools of barracuda. I didn’t know where to look because there was an incomprehensible amount to observe. All this activity on the wall made me wonder, what else is out there in the blue that I can’t see? Obviously I had to go for a quick peak and satisfy my curiosity, so I swam away from the wall, although visibility was fantastic so I could always see my way back. But then to my total shock, in the blue, I saw initially 3 hammerhead sharks following each other. Frantically trying to get the attention of my pals to show them what they’d missed at dreamhouse, I turned back around and could make out at least 15 or 20 more. I was utterly bamboozled because I’d never heard of people finding hammerheads here, yet those illusive creatures were right there next to us! And I found them!

Needless to say the journey home was full of smiley faces, and to top it all off, in the distance I saw the tail of a large whale stand up before dropping into the deep blue, how magical for a day at work.

Monitoring project.

I have been happy with the progress that I’ve put into the design of my marine monitoring project. I would really like to include the hammerhead sharks as an aspect of the research, by I think from the beginning it will require too many resources to be viable. Instead I want to focus to be on the health of the corals and fish populations with respect to the physical conditions on the reef, particularly temperature and acidity. As I discussed in my last blog, a survey team will be responsible for reef surveys, and I plan to install temperature loggers at various depths at each site, to record the physical data. These are relatively cheap and so shouldn’t be a financial hurdle.

I also want to include some research into predation on the reef, as I have been reading a lot about the link between the health of ecosystems, and the abundance of top predators, so I think this could add a real appeal to the project, and would be unique against all the other conservation programs around Fiji, which don’t pay close attention to predator behavior and populations.

My final idea which I can accredit to my parents, is to allow flexibility for people to join the project both short term and long term, giving them the chance to decide how long to commit themselves. I would like a core group of surveyors, which would be trained in depth, and continue providing quality data, but I see the importance of allowing people to join on a short term basis, and learn the basics of monitoring, either throughout their holidays, or as a short trip where they can experience marine conservation in a bite-sized trip that fits in with their life.

I am really excited about this project, and welcome suggestions from everyone about how to make it a success. I want to make it the purpose of my time here in Savusavu.

Up next:

I have had a good week of diving, and am relieved to get back to my favorite sites. I have been working non stop and haven’t had time to decorate the Love Shack yet, so next week I would like to spend some time being creative, that is of course if I get some time off work. I have been continuing my endeavors as a fruit farmer though! Eating my first guavas from the tree, which are so fragrant, much like a passionfruit, and have a smooth and silky, rose pink flesh inside.

I have my eye on the coming England vs Fiji rugby match – which will be a huge event here which I’m totally excited for, although my allegiance is torn between the two teams. I think everyone would be happy with a Fiji victory, even many of us English fans.

I still think of home often, and miss everyone there, so these blogs are keeping my connection to all of you very strong, as I think of everything you might like to read about while I write them. Huge love goes out to all of you ❤ . Sota Tale 😉