This morning we awoke to find ourselves in the beautiful calm waters just off the island of Wakaya. The clear blue skies and picture perfect sunrise were a welcomed sight at 7am as we gathered on the dive deck for our first dive briefing. We started the week with one of the crew’s favorite dive sites known as ‘Blue Ribbon Eel Wall’. This turned out to be a beautiful dive with a verity of both hard and soft corals. There was a light current and the visibility was a bit low, but we made due. The marine life on the wall was incredible with fish and sea creatures of every classification you could imagine. I was using a super wide angle lens, so I couldn’t take advantage of all the macro stuff and the two Blue Ribbon Eels that were sharing the same ledge on the wall. There were also a couple of very photogenic Lion Fish on the corner of the wall and someone said they saw a large Sea Turtle swim past. There were even a couple of White Tip Sharks that swam by, but the visibility and distance to them would not allow for a good photograph.

After breakfast (and after changing my camera lens) it was off to another great site called ‘Manta Rock’. Today this dive site would live up to its name. That’s right, the group saw a total of 4 large Mantas on the site and several of the divers even got them on film (video to follow). I think this was really the one big highlight of this site, everything else kind of blended into the first dive except that the visibility seemed to be getting better. There was a lot of excitement after the dive about the Manta sightings. It seamed as though everyone started verbally imagining the week ahead and all the incredible pictures that might be granted to the lucky soul for being in the right place at the right time! I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Once back on board the Aggressor, the crew hoisted anchor and made way for our next set of dive sites just off the island of Makogai. While we were underway, Julie and I cleaned up and then joined the other guests for lunch in the dinning area. So far the food has been out standing and I can’t wait to see what’s on the menu for dinner. The trip from Wakaya to Makogai Island took just under two hours which allowed me time to change my camera battery and charge up my strobes for the next set of dives. Our first dive of the afternoon was at ‘Christines’ where we all enjoyed photographing the Lion Fish and the numerous verities of Anemone Fish. The soft corals were also blooming with color and thriving with small fish! One just can’t help but notice how healthy the reef system is here in Fiji… It’s truly wonderful!!

A Leaf Scorpion Fish – perfectly camouflaged with the coral

Our last dive of the day was on a site called ‘Half Pipe’. Here we were entertained by a Humphead Shrimp, a Golden Mantis Shrimp, two Leaf Scorpion Fish and a pair of Clarke’s Anemone Fish that just couldn’t get enough of having their pictures taken. This would have been a great site if only there hadn’t been such a strong surge in the middle where all the fish (and all the divers) were hanging out.