Fiji In Living Color - Scuba Diving Magazine

Fiji In Living Color - Scuba Diving Magazine

June 2007

Text by Buck Butler

At two passages in the soft-coral capital of the world, strong currents make for eye-popping reefs.

In still waters, normally brilliant colonies of Dendronephthya soft coral retract into protective, knobby fists, and a reef that's a Jolly-Rancher-colored spectacle in normal conditions becomes a mundane rockscape. But when currents push fast-moving water over a soft-coral reef, these assemblages of tiny animals unfurl their jewel-toned branches to feed on the nutrients that ride those currents. Put your mask close to a soft coral tree to find each colony of Dendronephthya plumping itself up, taking on water to filter for food until its translucent membrane practically glows. Then, for a more expansive view, move two fin-kicks away from a soft-coral-covered wall when the current is running--the stronger the better--and you will find one of the most spectacular sights under the sea.

If you want to find soft corals, pack your gear for the 300-plus islands of Fiji. And if you want to find reefs washed by swift currents and everything that means--forests of soft corals, thriving hard corals, a mind-boggling diversity of species and tornadoes of schooling fish--look at a map of Fiji and find the places where water accelerates through narrow passages with every tidal change. In that fast water, divers sometimes have to kick hard just to stay in one place, and soft-coral sites literally come to life.

Where can you find a regularly occurring perfect storm of these conditions and some of the most visually engaging reefs in the world? Fiji's Somosomo Strait and Vatu-i-Ra Passage.

Read full article here: Fiji In Living Color - Scuba Diving Magazine

Fiji Scuba Diving - A Perfect Active Vacation

Fiji Scuba Diving - A Perfect Active Vacation

"Fiji scuba diving is amongst some of the most awe-inspiring in the world.

An archipelago of over 300 islands spread over an area larger than 200,00 square miles. Fiji offers hundreds of diving sites to please even very discriminating divers.

Wreck dives, drift dives and night dives amongst other Fiji scuba activities are sure to provide great activities for novice through to experienced drivers."

Ecotourism benefits nature and reduces poverty - earth - 12 December 2007 - New Scientist Environment

12 December 2007
Magazine issue 2633

Ecotourism, sometimes criticised as the voyeuristic indulgence of rich first-worlders, really does benefit the environment and the people who live in protected areas. A review of four marine conservation initiatives shows that they have helped reduce poverty and created tourism-based jobs, says Craig Leisher of Nature Conservancy, an environmental group in Arlington, Virginia.

The report, Nature's Investment Bank, co-authored by Leisher and published on 29 November, is based on interviews with more than 1000 people in four recently protected marine zones in Fiji, Indonesia, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. In every case, the conservation schemes had boosted fish catches and helped create new jobs.

'In some sites, the scale of improvement was dramatic,' says Leisher. 'In Fiji, for example, local incomes doubled over five years following introduction of a protected fishery.' In Indonesia's Bunaken National Marine Park, meanwhile, ecotourism schemes created many new jobs in restaurants and hotels and ..."

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Ecotourism benefits nature and reduces poverty - earth - 12 December 2007 - New Scientist Environment