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From snow white coral to schools of bull sharks, to a Crown of Thorn’s cull – our list of the TOP SCUBA dives in Fiji and the Vanuatu Archipelago.
Expedition Drenched has been lucky enough to dive some of the best dive sites in the world and on those sites we’ve been blessed to see some incredible things. But there’s one location in the world that will always hold our SCUBA hearts firmly in its grasp – the South Pacific, specifically Fiji and Vanuatu.
We’ve already published videos on our favourite mooring sites and favourite dive sites in the South Pacific, but now we want to focus on just Fiji and Vanuatu.
Our favourite dives in these island nations gave us something truly unique – from a snow-white reef, to a sunken ex-luxury liner, to a Crown of Thorns cull dive. These four dives changed who we are as SCUBA divers and marine conservationists, and we think they’ll change you too.
Ever wondered what it would be like to dive into a snowy landscape? Well wonder no more, just dive the Great White Wall in Fiji!
White Wall is known for the huge quantity of white, fluffy, soft coral that gives the dive site the look of being covered in a layer of fresh snow. White coral is fairly rare in the underwater world so to dive a site that has such a huge concentration of these beautiful creatures was an incredible treat, even for those of us who don’t usually like looking at coral. These were arguably the healthiest corals we have ever seen.
The site is also a great place to comb the rock face looking for small things like nudibranchs and crabs. We even saw a couple of sharks on our dive so this site can surprise you with many unexpected things from out of the blue.
The SS President Coolidge wreck is one of the most popular shipwreck dives in the world, and it’s also the largest. The wreck itself is roughly 200 meters long and 25 meters wide with about 50 different ‘dive sites’ to explore.
When it was originally built, the Coolidge was a luxury liner that could accommodate about 1,000 passengers. In December 1941, she was sent into service as a troop carrier for the U.S. war effort in the South Pacific. In October 1942, the SS President Coolidge was coming into port in Luganville on Espiritu Santo. But she had missed a crucial message from the U.S. military already on shore – make sure you take the back way into the bay because underwater mines are blocking the main channel. The SS President Coolidge struck one of these mines and sunk close to shore. In a very real way, the Coolidge was sunk by its own team.
This shipwreck is HUGE. It’s recommended to spend at least 10 dives on the wreck to even start exploring the treasures it has to offer. You could spend months looking into each room and nook that the wreck has to offer. Keep in mind that every dive on this wreck will require a deco stop on your ascent, so it’s not the right kind of place for a novice or under-trained diver.
The highlight of this dive for us was finding the “Lady and the Unicorn” statue deep inside the wreck. We had rough, hand-drawn directions with us, and a keen drive to locate the statue, but even still we were blown away when the light of our torches finally revealed the porcelain statue that used to have a prominent place in the ballroom when the Coolidge was still a luxury liner.
Bull sharks are requiem sharks usually found in warm, shallow waters all over the world. They are well-known for their aggressive nature and their terrifying ability to thrive in both the salt water of the oceans and the freshwater of rivers and lakes. A young boy was allegedly bitten by a bull shark in Lake Michigan, Illinois, in 1955, and experts say that while the attack is unconfirmed, it’s entirely possible.
So who wants to go diving with these testy creatures? We do!
We jumped in the water in Pacific Harbour in the south of Fiji and were super excited to see a few bull sharks. But we didn’t see a few. We saw tons! Honestly, we were all a little shocked at how many large bull sharks were down there with us, and how close they came to our group of submarine humans.
The dive itself wasn’t too deep and it certainly wasn’t a dive that we were used to. Once down at our dive depth, we all lined up behind a man-made wall of stones and used it to give us a little bit of protection from the huge sharks. Our guides and safety divers were around us with large hooks to poke the sharks away if they got too curious or too excited.
If you like adventure and love the feeling of your heart racing, then a bull shark dive in Fiji should be on your list. Nothing gets the blood pumping like being surrounded by dozens of 3-meter-long aggressive sharks!
Crown of Thorns starfish have been spawning on a large scale in the Vanuatu archipelago for many, many years. These beautifully spikey creatures are underwater pests. These animals spawn in the millions from December to March, so every year, an existing problem gets even worse.
Why is it such a big problem? Each night, the nocturnal Crown of Thorns can eat up to its body area in coral, and they can grow to become up to a meter in diameter. The average Crown of Thorns consumes up to 13 square meters of reef every year. Left unchecked, they can easily and quickly destroy an entire coral reef.
Crown of Thorns starfish are large and can travel big distances to find a tasty piece of coral. When they find a good-looking meal, they extrude their stomachs around the coral and slowly digest the polyps and suck up the liquid meal. After the polyps are sucked out of the calcium substrate, the coral appears white. Within a few weeks, black algae will start to cover the dead coral making it hard for new coral to attach and grow.
When we arrived at Efate Island in southern Vanuatu, we went straight to Port Havannah to meet Peter, a resident who has dedicated himself to saving his local reefs from the invasion of the Crowns. He explained the two methods we’d be using to cull these pests from the reef and the special safety considerations we needed to keep in mind (like that the Crown of Thorns is covered in poisonous spikes). And then, we went diving and did our part to help protect the beautiful ocean world around Vanuatu.
We managed to collect or kill over 200 Crown of Thorns starfish on our dive, and while we were happy with that number, it doesn’t even make a dent in the problem. Peter and the entire Vanuatu region need the help of SCUBA diving volunteers to really go to war with the Crowns. Visit Peter’s website to learn more about how you can get involved to help control the explosion of Crown of Thorns starfish in Vanuatu.
Have you been diving in Fiji or Vanuatu and have a special dive stuck in your memory that didn’t make our list? Head over to our YouTube channel and leave us a comment on our TOP 10 Most AMAZING DIVE SITES In the South Pacific video to tell us about your experiences!
Go forth and explore our beautiful marine world. Happy bubbles!
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Expedition drenched is a U.S. based marine educational non profit 501c3 made possible by our donors and patrons. If you love scuba, sailing, travel, adventure, exploration, conservation, and all things aquatic, we really hope you will continue to follow us on our journey. Our goal in making these videos is to show the world all the amazing, beautiful, and strange inhabitants of the ocean in the hopes that we will all be inspired to protect it.
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