If Found On Land, Throw Back Into The Ocean

Mermaid trip crashed by a few mermen: picture girls trip gone wild and hubbies just joined in the fun, in their own silent way! (Poor guys, they were literally outnumbered.) Enthusiastic, sharing, daring, and fun bunch of divers; relishing in all the tiny and large underwater life alike! No dive was a boring dive and the weather paled in comparison with these sunny personalities. 

All of the previous compliments are just the lead up to the fact that meal times have never been louder… At the end of the charter, I believe we could all distinguish each other’s voices without the help of sight.

Out of all the comments during this charter, COLOR stood out the most. COLOR COLOR COLOR!

Photo by NANCY

Photo by TRACEY

Photo by TRACEY

Photo by TRACEY

Photo by TRACEY, purple anthias

Photo by TRACEY, marbled shrimp (PARTY SHRIMP)

Photo by TRACEY, Mo found 3 of these amazing sap sucking slugs!

“From start to finish the crew was absolutely outstanding, some of the best ever!” - Tracey

Photo by Paula, Clay and Big Mo

Passionate divers equals passionate and detailed ways to describe fishies and the expectation for you to know exactly which one they mean, their Latin name and purpose in life.

Our first dilemma was a burgundy small fish with a white dot on its nose. That went on for such a long time we ended up naming it Sarah Puntada. Real name = Juvenile exquisite wrasse (we prefer her charter given name.)

These discussions took over lunch time and any spare moment we had to join heads together in search of our mystery friends underwater.

Photo by KARI, Blue Dragon

Photo by KARI, nudibranch

Photo by KARI, flabellina

Photo by KARI, Sea spider

Photo by KARI, spotted shrimp goby

Photo by KARI, white hermit crab

On Mount Mutiny all the divers enjoyed a sighting of our first 2025 scalloped hammerhead chilling at Hardcoral Wall! Followed by another one at Wakaya and two at Namena!  

Several decorator crabs, walking and talking both in daylight and nighttime. One of them even had a little bonnet made of xenia,

Quite a few turtle encounters early on,

Eagle rays flying on pre sunset dive,

Family of bumphead parrot fish,

& Tess and Tracey got dental appointments with Wakaya cleaner shrimps.

Photo by KARI, cleaner shrimps (right before we saw a manta barrel behind us)

Our learning section:

-all sea kraits are sea snakes, not all sea snakes are sea kraits

-boulder coral has a huge community of living organisms: Christmas trees, clams, right-handed hermit crabs, sponges and even, occasionally, a sweet pugged nose false cleaner fangtooth blenny. BEWARE of the CUTENESS, when it opens its mouth it displays its actual fangs, leaving you confused and questioning everything you knew about piglets.

Photo by NANCY, right handed hermit crab

-we don't have the real anemonefish, Nemo, in Fiji BUT we have the real blue tang, DORY

Photo by TRACEY, DORY!

- currently the biggest 5 grey reef sharks in Nigali passage are females

Photo by NANCY, Chad and white tip reef shark

Photo by NANCY, cabbage patch at Nigali Passage 

- small golden trevally seem to have the same behavior with sharks than pilot fish have with whales; sticking to their snout

Photo by TRACEY, female grey reef shark with a bunch of golden trevally

- it is hard to distinguish between a non-pregnant and a pregnant marble stingray as they are bit back fatty in general

Photo by TRACEY, Clau and marble stingray!

Around our third charter day, a few ladies wanted to commandeer the ship to go search for the lead actor of ‘Magic Mike’, who had been spotted by Fiji News on an island “nearby”. Efforts were eradicated by our gentlemen and crew. 

Tess also indirectly organized a jumping off the boat activity for everyone, willingly or not. Got permission from the Captain and Chief officer and in no time we all had the shouting encouragement of all the crew to jump, JUMP, JUMP!

Tess was one of the trouble makers, as you can tell... unfortunately not the only one! 

She did fall in love with the animals and people in the village, as everyone who enjoyed meeting everyone at Somosomo village. 

Photo by TESS, Our Ana and family

Photo by KARI The deep at Wakaya seemed to have chicken pox from all cauliflower jellys floating!

Highlights from our guests

“Sharks. The abundance of them, the curiosity of them too. Just overcoming stigma towards them.”-Tess

“Above expectations. I will never forget Schoolhouse!”-Paula

“The diversity underwater; so many types of wrasses and all the hard coral bouquets!”-Nancy

“The manta experience, especially seeing a melanistic one.”-Linda

“Absolutely love the coral; they don’t move, they stay put for me to watch them and all the fish behavior around them!”-Max

“Some of the most beautiful diving I've done in my life” - Tracey

I will take a moment to get a bit serious for a moment. We had the most amazing time and luck with 3 dives at Blue Ridge, all with manta encounters. We could recognize Shirley, female huge melanistic on the second dive and probably third. Our surprise encounter was with an enormous chevron manta on dive 1. She stayed with us for 30 min and we got her tummy photo!

Last sighted at Wakaya in 2013 and in Yasawa in 2014. She was a juvenile at the time, identified yet not ever named. We had the privilege of naming her on this charter: Michele, in honor of Tracey’s fellow diver and friend who passed away diving a few years ago. The day went from exciting to emotional in the evening. 

Photo by TRACEY, Gorgeous Michele

Needless to say, this was an amazing trip and thank you all for the part you played in making these 10 days so enjoyable!

Vinaka vakalevu, and hasta luego!