Scuba Diving Fiji

Diving Fiji Overview

For left coasters, it takes about the same amount of time to get to Fiji as it does to the Caribbean: 10 hours nonstop from L. A, and the diving in Fiji is arguably considerably superior to most in the Caribbean. Prices are comparable and air packages can include New Zealand/Australia extensions at little extra cost. Fijians are polite, friendly, modest, and religious, so watch your language, and wear nonrevealing clothes to town. Wetsuits are staples yearround; currents add coolness and in some places they're vigorous, so carry surface signaling devices when diving Fiji or Tuvalu.. In September 2004, American Dan Grenier, the former operator of Crystal Divers, disappeared with another diver while leading divers from Bamboo Reef Resort on Nananu-I-Ra. The weather can be stormy June through September; short, heavy showers are possible any afternoon year-round, especially around Beqa Lagoon. The year-round average temperature is 80 or above; nights average 69 degrees in winter.

Fiji Seasonal Dive Planner

Fiji's weather presents a real mixed bag. The choice is often between good visibility and cool water or warm water and calmer seas with less visibility. June through October is the dry season when the water is the clearest, but it's also at its coldest and the winds kick up. Water temperatures can sink into the low 70s during this time of the year, making it necessary to drag out the full wetsuits. November brings a transition period. The water warms up, the winds die down, and the plankton blooms, lowering the visibility. By January and February, the water has warmed back up into the low 80s. The rains pick up and the hurricane season is on (December through March). Counting Tonga and Samoa, the area gets about five cyclones a year. It's a risky time to try to catch good diving weather. Because the winds kick up so much in February and March, some resorts pick these months to close down for repairs. During April and May, the wind, and therefore the seas, become calmer and the water remains warm, but the plankton bloom cuts down on the underwater visibility. Of course, this offers the best odds of seeing large plankton eaters. The best time to go depends on your preferences: warm, calmer, cloudy seas, or clear but cold water.

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Reef & Rainforest, Dive & Adventure Travel A full service dive travel agency that specializes in exotic destinations (South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Africa, South & Central America).

Diving Fiji Feature Articles and Reader Reports

Attention! You must be an Undercurrent Online Member to access MOST links in this section. However some articles can be accessed by the public -- these links have a button you can click to see the article. What others have to say about Undercurrent

All Availble to Undercurrent Online Members; Some Publicly Available as Indicated

Diving Fiji Articles - Land Based Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Fiji, Truk. . ., plus unexpected cold water, and a liveaboard to avoid, 8/12 Lalati Resort and Matangi Resort, Fiji, dive luxury living: a tale of two islands, 7/12 Fiji Airlines’ Abysmal Service, 7/12 Cocos, Fiji, Roatan, Yucatan, and why you shouldn’t rely solely on travel agents, 5/11 Legal Complications of Being Injured Abroad, why a Californian had to go to Hawaii to sue a Fiji resort, 3/11 Night Time Raid on Fiji’s Lagoon Resort, Beqa Divers, 6/10 Oman, Fiji, Hawaii, Bahamas… , need a change of pace? check out these dive sites and operators, 4/10 Papoo Divers, Nananu-i-ra, Fiji, “boutique diving” away from the crowds, 1/10 Off the Beaten Path, dive destinations worthy of your consideration, 10/09 Wananavu Beach Resort, Fiji, great diving, although Kai Viti Divers closes its doors, 6/09 Available to the Public Fiji Divers Caught in Pricing Battle at Garden Island Resort, 10/08 Moody’s Namena, Fiji, South Pacific, a romantic hideaway with fine diving, 4/02 Thumbs Down — Divers Get Taboo Treatment from Fiji's Taveuni Island Resort, 4/00 Diving with the Cousteau Team, Jean-Michel Cousteau Fiji Island Resort, 6/97 Another Fiji Destination, 6/97 Matana Resort, Fiji, 7/96 Fiji: Loma Loma Resort, 4/96 Marlin Bay Resort, Fiji, 2/96 Diving in Fiji, 5/94

Diving Fiji Articles - Liveaboards Cape Eleuthera, Fiji, Maui, Mexico, two more Baja boats, a new dive shop, and a great night dive, 3/12 Bonaire, Fiji, Galapagos, Roatan, great examples of customer service - - and one resort to avoid, 9/11 Available to the Public Nai’a, Fiji, bright diving, weather permitting, good service all the time, 7/08 Nai'a Crew Rescues All Hands After Grounding, 10/06 Return to Fiji Aboard the Nai’a, Sipping Kava and Flying Fiji Style, 6/99

Editor's Book Picks for Scuba Diving Fiji
Including Beqa Lagoon/Pacific Harbor, Kadavu,
Laucala, Nananu-I Ra, Taveuni and Matangi

The books below are my favorites about diving in this part of the world All books are available at a significant discount from Amazon.com; just follow the links. -- BD

Reef Creature Identification: Tropical Pacific
by Paul Humann and Ned Deloach

Paul Humann and Ned Deloach have done it again, releasing a definitive identification guide to 1600 extraordinary reef creatures of the Tropical Pacific. with this 500+ page softbound guide, you get upwards of 2000 exceptional photos of shrimp and crabs and stars and worms and lobsters and nudibranchs and slugs and squid and bivalves . . . well, all those invertebrates that move along the reefs of this region without fining, so it seems. There are several photos of some creatures to help you identify them during different life stages, and about ten percent of the book is descriptive copy so you can tie down your identification. Even if you have no plans to go to the tropical Pacific, just to thumb through the pages, gawk at the complexity and uniqueness of these animals, and read a thumbnail sketch will give any serious diver vicarious thrills for endless hours.

Click here to order through Undercurrent and you’ll get Amazon’s best price -- and we'll get a cut of the proceeds to continue our reef-protection efforts.

Reef Fish Identification: Tropical Pacific
by Gerald Allen, Rodger Steene, Paul Humann, & Ned Deloach

At last, here's a comprehensive fish ID guide covering the reefs of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The generous 500-page text, displaying 2,500 underwater photographs of 2,000 species, identifies the myriad fishes that inhabit the warm tropical seas between Thailand and Tahiti. The concise text accompanying each species portrait includes the fish's common, scientific and family names, size, description, visually distinctive features, preferred habitat, typical behavior, depth range, and geographical distribution. This is an essential book for every diver traveling westward. 6x9 inches. Order through us, get Amazon.com's best price and a good hunk of the profit will be donated to preserve coral reefs.

Dive Sites of the Great Barrier Reef
by Neville Coleman.

With 2900 reefs in 220,000 square miles, the enormous Great Barrier Reef has incredible dives -- and some very ordinary ones. If you're contemplating a trip, Neville Coleman's Dive Sites of the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea will help you ensure you pick the best. This 176 page book, with good maps and scores of colorful photos, describes the significant sites, the topography and the critters, then rates and ranks them so you can pick the best. Don't even consider a trip to Australia without consulting this. $24.95

Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide
by Gerald R. Allen, Roger Steene.

I was trying to pack light for a change. Surely the Solomon Sea would have good identification books aboard. Not so; the only book on the boat belonged to a fellow passenger. It was one that I had not seen before, the Indo-Pacific Coral Reef Field Guide, by two of the best fish guys around, Gerry Allen and Roger Steene. The problem was this fellow passenger kept it in a plastic baggie most of the trip and I had to beg to see it. Great book, good traveling size, and it covers everything from fish, shells, marine plants, mammals, corals, and invertebrates to sea birds and more. Now I've got my own, and it won't do you any good to beg me to borrow it. This is one of two books that I will not travel to the Pacific without. Good for travel to the Red Sea, East Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, Maldives, Andaman Sea, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Australia, Micronesia, Polynesia, and Hawaii, it has 1,800 color illustrations in a 6x8 1/2 paperback format with 378 pages. $39.95.

There's a Cockroach in My Regulator
by Undercurrent

The Best of Undercurrent: Bizarre and Brilliant True Diving Tales from Thirty Years of Undercurrent.

Shipping now is our brand new, 240-page book filled with the best of the unusual, the entertaining, and the jaw dropping stories Undercurrent has published. They’re true, often unbelievable, and always fascinating. We’re offering it to you now for the special price of just $14.95.

Click here to order.

You might find some other books of interest in our Editor's Book Picks section.