Snorkelling in Taveuni Fiji is a popular activity. The Northern Territory of Fiji has some of the most prolific and dense inshore reef systems in the world. As opposed to other renowned reef systems like Australia's Great Barrier Reef, these are within a safe few minutes swim from the beach, rather than an extended boat ride.

Recently, Dave Burdick who is with the NOAA project in Guam made a week long side trip to Taveuni before attending the SOPAC meeting in Suva. He specifically came to explore and discover what he hoped to be some of the best diving and snorkeling the world has to offer in relation to tropical reefs. Presently, he is in charge of the project that does the GIS (Geographic Information Sensing from satellite information) mapping of Guam's reefs. He further goes out to perform field studies to confirm the satellite images. Coral reefs are his passion.

Since he is an expert in the field and a guest at Makaira, it was the perfect opportunity to take him out for a snorkel tour to gather information and uncover the mystery of how this particular reef system manages to stay so beautiful and pristine from a scientific point of view.

Words can not describe a truly healthy tropical reef system and this particular one extends a third of mile out to sea with a quarter mile loop around the point and back to the other cove. There are 3 points in a line that mark the entrance of 2 large coves, each being about a third of a kilometer across. Each of the points has a massive and diverse reef system offering square miles of unbelievable snorkeling.

There is really too much to see or describe, with every snorkel trip revealing something new.

For the casual snorkeler they are awed by the schools of sargeant majors that range in the hundreds, descending in a single file during feeding upon the colorful reef and condensing together forming a glistening yellow cloud. The surface reveals smatterings of balling schools of bait fish. Any sudden movements have the ballyhoo skimming away in fright. There are hundreds of species of brightly colored tropical fish like parrotfish, wrasses, angels and various butterfly fish, the list is to long to recite The reef is a plethora of corals, with schools of electric blue and turquoise damsel fish cautiously peering out from the branches of stag horn corals ranging in color from beige, brown, sapphire, turquoise, green, and pink. Nestled throughout the coral formations, are table corals that add a soft rounded look to the reef scene with a scattering of sapphire blue periwinkle star fish and Christmas tree feather worms decorate some of the several species of lobbed corals. In the midst of this there are fields of soft leather corals, with other varieties of soft corals tucked away for protection.

With a keen eye to all of this beauty a feisty clown fish will inadvertently draw your attention to a few species of anemones. If you are lucky you might even see the shy, docile black and white banded sea snake undulating through the corals or a spotted tiger ray skimming over the along the sandy flats at the drop-off. Or perhaps a school of Trevally and on extremely rare occasions a very unconcerned white tip reef shark may swim by in the distance, but that is a rare sight. There is one coral formation that Dave Burdick had to be shown. It is off the edge of the middle marker of the reef, the top is approximately 7 feet from the surface, depending on the tide and it stands at least 14 feet high. It resembles a colossal statue that looks like an Octopus, with a patch of soft leather coral in its lap and a cluster of hard corals where one would expect to find earrings on this abstract underwater sentinel guarding the center mark of the outside reef. When Dave saw it, he literally snapped back in the water and took the snorkel out of his mouth and exclaimed, "I have never seen since a huge colony of poritis (star coral), it has got to be over a 100 years old!" Its sheer height and girth has assured its survival through any type of oceanic catastrophe.

After Dave finished his 2 hour snorkel tour of just the outer edge of one reef system, the first comment he made was, "of all the places in the world I have been or studied, the only time you can find such a dense and prolific reef is if you travel at least an hour by boat. I have never seen such a healthy, colorful, prolific and dense reef system right off shore and I have never seen since a density of hard coral in one area anywhere in the world, not even at the Great Barrier Reef. There could be up to 50 species of Acropora (branching corals, like stag horn, table corals)." He further explained that the branching corals are the first ones to inhabit a reef as they are the fastest growing. They create a reef eco-system that allows enough protection and habitat for the slower growing corals to take hold.

This was a necessary transition since in 1998 Hurricane Gavin swept through Fiji, bringing 15-20 foot waves into the normally calm cove and decimated most of reef much to everyone’s despair. So from a marine biologist point of view to see a reef go from what was literally a gravel pit in 1998 to what it is today in less then 9 years time is quite remarkable.

From Dave's Marine Biologist point of view this particular area has the perfect conditions for creating a dense reef system. For all intents and purposes many of these conditions can be duplicated by employing some conservation techniques that would greatly benefit many tropical reefs. 1. There is no fresh water run off carrying sediment into the waters that suffocate the corals. 2. There are no toxins or pollution in the water. 3. The coves flush out on a regular basis with the tides. 4. There is enough reef fish to keep the algae down while still supporting the habitat. 5. He was also surprised to find none of the corals were broken up until he realized like all guests he received a personal guided tour, but in his case he did not need the compulsory education on reef etiquette and conservation. 6. Most importantly, due to the underwater fresh water springs that dapple the area it keeps the water temperature cool enough all year round which prevents coral bleaching from Global warming, but it is not enough fresh water to adversely affect the salinity that would deter fast and healthy coral growth.

In a rapidly changing world it is nice to see habitats that are virtually untouched and unchanged except by Mother Natures hand and she happens to be a very good reef gardener.

For more information or to book at Makaira and experience Taveuni's wonderful snorkelling, click here.