5 to 8 bull sharks are by then patrolling in circles just below the feed box. They rarely moved rapidly, and seem to move to the feeder not by turning to him but by gradually moving the center of their patrol circle until they intersect him on their next pass. Here is a video of them circling, taken from slightly more depth than the feeder. The first shark has just passed the feeder, ignoring the fish. Shark 2 passes me, then circles near the fish, ignores it, then back by me. The next 2 sharks look at my silver Stingray housing to see if it's the fish. We'd been cautioned that if they came at the camera just to bump them and they'd move away, but not to bump too hard or they'd strike at the camera. I have several video passes where they came on in toward the camera. Not knowing how hard to "bump", I pulled off the shot.

Here are 3 different sharks taking the bait and resuming their circling. Watch the 3rd handoff to see how my video housing at arms length might look like the fish he's handing out.

Big Fish Encounter - Other Critters

Many other fish are in attendance at the bull shark feeding. A large tawny nurse shark will show up early, and try to crawl into the feed bucket. A bumphead wrasse is another early arriver, hanging around the fringes, looking for a handout too. Both will leave when the bulls start feeding. One or two gigantic grouper will be there the whole time and feed until they get tired of it. They show no fear of the bull sharks and will muscle in for a turn with the feeder. There a many different jack species, including the largest ones I've ever seen, constantly buzzing the feeding. Divers with small point and shoot cameras are warned not to hold them at arms length as the jacks will haul them off. Everyone wears black gloves for the same reason. There are literally thousands of smaller fish, including the zebra striped damsels that cover the feeder like bees on a beekeeper. The combination of many fish, swirling sharks, and divers moving about creates a severe backscatter environment for still photos, in otherwise great vis.

Worries that the swirling mass of fish interferes with the diver's shark viewing causes Beqa to station a support diver about 20 feet over the feeder's head to toss out chunks of bait to attract them upward. Sometimes a big enough chunk of bait is dropped that the patrolling bull sharks notice, and rocket upward like climbing fighter jets. One grabs the bait chunk, then all settle back down to slowly patrolling the bottom again. Similarly, sometimes a big chunk falls down into the arena with the sharks, setting off action not unlike a rugby scrum. They only abandoned their sedate circling to move rapidly when the bait was loose in the water. They are reticent to approach the diver's bubbles, but show no such inhibition in a free for all with fish or other sharks.

I booked 3 of these dive trips to up my chances of seeing a tiger shark, and the cover the risk of a trip being cancelled due to weather or boat issues. While I missed the tiger shark, I don't regret doing all three trips. The "fun factor" was enormous.

Diving on the Fiji Aggressor II

The Sere Ni Wa is a private yacht 101 feet in length, 22 feet in width, that has been refitted to be a 10 passenger live aboard dive boat. With only 10 passengers, the berths are quite spacious, with plenty of storage, and the living/dining area is adequate. The outside camera area is both small and wet, so most of the time the cameras live on the floor inside. Both the food and crew were excellent. The dive stations are cramped, being in a row across the dive platform just one step from the ocean, and as close together as physically possible to put adjacent tanks. Divers have to take turns gearing up as there is not sufficient room between them. About 25% of the diving is from the panga, and all must go together, so the cramped spacing becomes more noticed when all 10 divers are on the platform at once. 32% nitrox is available. On our trip there were 21 day dives, 3 night dives, and a very worthwhile trip to a native village for a pork roast, songfest, and kava ceremony.

Dive Site Notes and Photo List

Many of the dive sites we dove through the week were pinnacles. Except as noted, they were roughly 100 feet or less in diameter, and rise up to near the surface, where they very colorful and full of fish. Around each is a a flatter area at 65 - 90 feet, with critters of it's own, then a drop of 3000 feet into the abyss.

Manta Rock: 1 pinnacle, 15 - 75 feet, drops to 3000 feet

In summer the top of this pinnacle is a manta cleaning station, but July (winter) isn't the season, so no mantas.

Photo 1: Sparky is the resident lionfish on Manta Rock.
Photo 5: A two banded anemonefish flits about while her buddy hides. Unlike the clown anemonefish, rather than attacking as I moved closer, these fled the anemone and did not return.
Photo 23: Many soldierfish peer out from beneath overhangs.

Becky's: 2 pinnacles, 10 - 75 feet, 200 feet apart

Two good pinnacles. The second one has 2 peaks.

Photo 4: I spent a while watching this tasseled scorpionfish feeding along the bottom of the first pinnacle. Sometimes, unwilling to wait for the victim to swim near, it would first open it's mouth widely, then scoot rapidly along until it caught up to it.
Photo 9: All current filled passages, such as this deep one on Becky's, are filled with sea fans. A careful diver can get through here without bumping them, to find a overhang with even more.
Photo 22: At shallower depths, hard coral and bushy soft coral compete with the sea fans for real estate. Colorful anthias show up as the diver rises, until at the top there are thousands.
Photo 12: Many species of butterflyfish hunt in pairs, like these Redfins, mostly at depths shallower than 50 feet.
Photo 24: One of a pair of pennant butterflyfish working the second pinnacle wall. Fiji has many butterflyfish species.

Christine's: 1 pinnacle, 20 - 65 feet

Photo 21: This nudibranch and several others were crawling along the flat area below the pinnacle.
Photo 19: Finger coral plays host to lots of fish. Here blue damselfish come out to feed on drifting plankton and then dash back down inside when threatened.
Photo 10: Steve kept finding tiny critters, like this spider crab.

Hi8 Reef: An extensive flattopped pinnacle, 0 - 3000 feet

Photo 18: An area on the edge of this extensive pinnacle is covered with several bubble anenomes of varying colors from white to deep red. Shown here are 2 of them and a lonely tomato anemone fish trying to cover them all.
Photo 17: One of the several lionfish sighted on Hi8.
Photo 15: The saddleback butterflyfish also make great video subjects, as they are easy to follow and go to interesting places.

Blue Ribbon Eel Reef: Rolldown wall, 30 - 3000 feet

Photo 2: 3 blue ribbon eels were here, down at about 95 feet, skittish and in hard to shoot locations. 3 visits to get this one.
Photo 7: A star puffer at a cleaning station.

Halfpipe: Pinnacle, 15 - 95 feet

Photo 8: 1 of a cluster of 3 of these nudibranchs on the wall.

Keenan's: Pinnacle, 15 - 75 feet

Photo 11: An absolutely gorgeous pinnacle, the top ablaze in color in the morning sun. Over a dozen closely packed bubble anemones, with tomato anemonefish like this one everywhere.

The Chimney: Pinnacle, 10 - 65 feet

Photo 14: A pair of masked butterflyfish search for food.

Pinball: 2 pinnacles, 15 - 65 feet, 150 feet apart

Photo 13: An unknown species of puffer fish.

Rick's Rock: pinnacle, 15 - 80 feet, drops to 3000 feet

Photo 20: Surge made for a tough shot on this common lionfish.

North Save-a-Tack: Wall, 45 - 110 feet, pass 105 - 20 feet.

A swim along a wall to a sandy pass, then turn right and drift to the boat. Schooling jacks, schooling barracuda, gray reef sharks, sometimes eagle rays. Sleeping grouper resting on the bottom. We did it twice in the week, looking for pelagics.

Photo 16: A resting backsaddle grouper gets a cleaning.

Summary

I went to Fiji because it was a quick and easy trip. I needed a trip, as I'd not been on a long range trip in almost two years. It was already June, and I have to remain in Florida from August thru October. Fiji promised waters warm enough that soft coral thrives, lots of the asian pacific fish species I've come to enjoy, and bookings were available.

It also had another attraction....the Big Fish Encounter. I'd learned of this adventure from my friend Michael O'Neil, a professional underwater photographer and author of children's marine books(http://www.mpostock.com) who dives regularly with us in West Palm. He'd rated it the best in the world, and he's done a lot of them. So the combination of attractors, the ease of the trip, and sudden inspiration got me going.

I usually get asked to rate a trip, against a standard others would understand. After two weeks thought on the matter, I rate it 75% of Papua New Guinea. It has about 75% the fish count, 75% the species, 75% the soft coral, hard coral, nudibranchs, etc. Still, they are the Asian Pacific variety, which I don't get to see often.

I went to Fiji in it's winter, which is a little blustery, and water is 78F°. Comfortable with a light wetsuit, but not in a skin. There's no winter in PNG, so 75% for the comfort factor too.

However, it takes me 3 days (2 overnights) to get the PNG, by any route, and only one really long day to get to Fiji. So a two week trip means 12 days in Fiji, and only 8 in PNG. For much less effort, and cost, I get the Lite version of the Asian Pacific.

And...I agree with Michael. Fiji has the world's best shark dive. The fun factor was enormous.