Last week I had a group of friends here on their second and third visits to the resort. I chose to take them to Never Ending Story, during the reverse of the current that we usually do, and it was a success (as it usually is, nine times out of ten). The game fish are running, and that's what we wanted to see.
We had schools of dogtooth tuna as big as we are. The largest one looked like a shark tried to have him for dinner and he got away. There were also the usual grey reef sharks, three or four this time. There are times, when they are breeding in June, that we can see over two dozen at once. Oh, what a sight that is!
I had another chance to get out and dive on Thanksgiving eve (for all of the Yanks) so I choose to go to Never Ending Story again. This time I had a special reason: the balolo (worms that spawn and rise out of the coral twice a year in certain parts of Fiji) had risen just that week. I knew that after they do that, there are usually mantas in the area (of course, I have learned never to promise things like that, or you will never see them). I hit the water and a saw a couple of good-size grey reef sharks, so I started over the ledge and dropped down, clanging my tank, hoping for the tuna to return, but didn't have any luck. As I looked up, I saw a solid black, ten-foot manta over the group of divers... then schools of jacks and batfish came up around me and I found myself contained by the schools. I went up over the top of the ledge and started to circle around the top of the reef, and the manta returned -- along with four buddies, one more that was solid black and three marked with silver stripes on their backs. So I guess I hit the jackpot both times on the only two dives I have been able to go on this month, and at the same spot.
- Dan Grenier
