s to explore. However, the best all round diving
destination would have to be Beqa Lagoon, where you can dive prolific reefs,
admire abundant reef fish, explore several colourful shipwrecks and be
guaranteed close encounters with some very large sharks.Beqa Lagoon is located off the southern side of the main Fijian island of Viti Levu. Diving here is centred around the small town of Pacific Harbour, around a three-hour drive from Nadi along the picturesque Coral Coast. We recently spent a week diving Beqa Lagoon with Beqa Adventure Divers (BAD) and experienced some of the brilliant diving in the area. There was just so much to see that we have split the article into two parts, the second part covering the reefs and wrecks and this one looking at Beqa Lagoon’s most famous dive site, Shark Reef.
Beqa Adventure Divers are based at Lagoon Resort, a very large complex with spacious rooms, a bar, restaurant, pool, gym and games room. The Lagoon Resort is situated on the Qara-ni-qio River, where BAD have their two dive boats moored only metres from the dive shop. Managed by expat Scot Andrew Cummings, Beqa Adventure Divers operate daily boat dives to the best dive sites in Beqa Lagoon, including Shark Reef three or four times a week.
In 1998, local dive operators started dumping fish scraps on a local reef to see if they could attract a few sharks. They got permission from the local villages to use Shark Reef for this experiment, as it had a lot of dead coral from coral bleaching. For several months they regularly dropped the fish scraps on the same site before they decided to have a look and see what they had attracted.
Chief shark feeders Manasa ‘Papa’ and Rusiate ‘Rusi’ told us about that first dive, and how they were amazed by the number of sharks swarming around, especially bull sharks. Over the next few months Papa and Rusi started to feed the sharks and teach them some manners. Three feeding platforms and viewing areas were built, so they could feed different sharks at each location. After several more months everything was ready to take paying customers to safely see the sharks being fed. It didn’t take long for word to get out and for Shark Reef to become the most popular shark dive in the world.
To dive Shark Reef was the main reason we had travelled to Fiji, and with BAD doing the shark feed three to four times a week we had plenty of time to view and photograph the shark action. BAD have a perfect safety record with their shark feeds. They give a full brief prior to the shark feed, on what will happen and what to expect, they also lay down a couple of simple rules. Everyone in full wetsuits, everyone wears black gloves, no snorkels, no hand waving and hang onto your camera - as they can quickly disappear if floating around, eaten by one of the giant trevally.
Our first dive at Shark Reef had outstanding conditions, flat seas and 30m plus visibility. The first feed is at 30m, and as soon as we entered the water we could see masses of fish swarming under the boat, plus several reef sharks below. We headed down to 30m to the viewing area and th
en watched one of the feeders bringing down a wheelie
bin full of fish heads, tails and frames. You could hardly see him, or the bin,
as he was being circled by a whirlpool of hundreds of giant trevally, red bass,
fusiliers, rainbow runners and surgeonfish, plus one huge Queensland groper.With everyone in place and the bin on the bottom, the lid was opened to feed this overwhelming mass of fish. The first to be fed was the groper, who quickly swallowed several fish heads, taking off with one. Then the giant trevally (GT) and red bass charged in for food, fighting with each other for scraps. These GT’s are powerful fish, and also seem to have a permanent angry expression on their face.
In the background we could see half a dozen bull sharks cruising about, occasionally one would charge in to pick up a bait that escaped the fish. Tawny nurse sharks, lemon sharks and silvertip sharks regular appear at this feed, but we didn’t see any during our stay. After 17 minutes the food was gone and it was time to move up to 10m, where the reef sharks get fed.
Papa was up there waiting for us with several dozen grey reef sharks, white tip reef sharks and black tip reef sharks milling around him. Papa informed us that this is the most difficult feed, as he can have seven sharks charging at the bait at one time, plus several GT’s fighting for the food. With everyone situated along the coral wall we watched Papa for 20 minutes as he hand fed the reef sharks.
This was spectacular shark action, but getting photos was a challenge, the sharks were performing well, but at times it was hard to see them with the schools of Sergent majors milling about. The sharks were coming within inches of our heads and one grey reef shark even had a nibble on Nigel’s strobe, not too tasty thankfully. Papa had more of a handful with white tip reef sharks squirming between his legs and grey reef sharks zooming in from several directions at once. The black tip reef sharks were very shy and didn’t feed, but a large moray eel slipped in to take some food.
For the second dive it was down to 15m for the bull shark feed. We were diving Shark Reef in October, the end of the bull shark season when they depart for two to three months to breed, but we still had around a dozen bull sharks in attendance. After all the frenetic pace of the reef shark feed, the bull shark feed was more subdue, but no less exciting.
These bull sharks are huge, 2.5m to 3m long and stocky. However, the crew from BAD informed us that these were the small ones, and we should see the big ones that come in after the breeding season. Rusi was feeding the bull sharks, which are much more well-mannered than the reef sharks, coming in from the left as trained and then exiting on the right. It was an impress sight seeing these large sharks feed so gently from Rusi’s hand.
Rusi fed about six sharks by hand, but the schools of GT’s and red bass were constantly getting in the way, forcing Rusi to ascend a few metres with a handful of baits to keep them occupied. This caused much excitement, with several of the bull sharks also ascending to grab pieces of fish and even chase the GT’s. The food and bottom time went all too quickly and we returned to the boat impressed with Shark Reef.
With two more shark feeds planned before we headed home we were hoping to see a Shark Reef regular called ‘Scarface’. This little girl appears about once a week, so our chances were good.
nately Helen was going to miss this one. Sick and
confided to bed for the day, she knew that Scarface was going to make an
appearance today.For the first dive Papa did a third feed for the black tip reef sharks at 4m on the top of the reef. I got into position right beside Papa to watch and photograph dozens of zippy black tips and white tips as they munched on the food. It was great fun, but hard to know which way to point the camera with so much action.
The final dive was the bull shark feed and again around a dozen bull sharks were coming in for the food. After ten minutes I heard a sound from the safety diver beside me and turned to see a white shape behind all the fish. This white shape kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. It was Scarface, the 4.5m long tiger shark, and was she an amazing sight!
When Scarface comes into feed the bull sharks hang in the background, I couldn’t blame them as she looked to be twice their size. Scarface slowly swam straight up to Rusi and opened her giant mouth, allowing him to drop in the food. After getting a piece of food she then slowly cruised over the watching divers, the first time just a foot above my head!
It was quite a sight to see this huge tiger shark slowly cruising around like a submarine, either coming in for food or checking out the divers. At one stage she did a drive by, coasting by all the assembled divers. For close to 30 minutes we watched this massive shark feed with awe. I surfaced with a huge smile, but knew Helen would be bitterly disappointed on missing out on an encounter with Scarface. We now have a great excuse to return to Beqa Lagoon.
Shark Reef is protected as a marine reserve and respected as such by all the local fishermen. BAD have paid for 12 locals to be trained as ‘Reef Wardens’ to police and protect this unique site. $F20 from each diver that visits Shark Reef goes to the local villages that own Shark Reef to ensure its future. The sharks of Shark Reef are also being studied, with the team from BAD assisting researchers it tagging and tracking.
After our dives at Shark Reef we would have to agree this is the best shark dive in the world, and I don’t think anybody on any of our dives would disagree. However, most of these divers had travelled to Pacific Harbour just to dive Shark Reef, without realising they were missing out on some of the best reefs and wrecks in Fiji that are also found in Beqa Lagoon, which we will look at in the second part of this article.