DIVE MUNDA NEWS

July 08- Its pink and it's hairy!

After a year of patiently searching every barrel sponge in sight, Jen was thrilled to finally track down not just one but two Pink Squat Lobsters (Lauriea siagiani). These beautifully coloured (uh, yes, bright pink) little crabs are about 15 milimetres long and covered in fine spines, hence their other common name, the Hairy Squat Lobster - making them a macro-photographer's dream. Jen and Grae are finding more and more fascinating critters around the reefs... when they're not being distracted by the big stuff!

Hammerhead season reached a crescendo with a fine display by a dozen Scallopeds, ghosting their way up over the big dropoff between Shark Point and Eagles Nest. Politely, the school also ensured that the Open Water student who was in the water on the same dive wasn't left out - a single Scalloped Hammerhead came up to 15 metres and gave him a close encounter he'll never forget. Another Open Water course had a shark encounter, too - a pair of 3-metre Silky sharks on Dive One. It's fantastic for students to see this kind of stuff, but it does leave the instructor struggling to keep up the momentum on the next three dives... For more experienced divers, the departure of the Hammerheads for their annual holidays has left the deeper reefs clear for our other large residents, the Silvertip sharks, which we're now seeing regularly again.

Not everyone's obsessed by sharks, so it's also good news that cetacean sightings are on the up, too. Pilot whales have started to appear, so we're expecting large pods in September/October, and there are plenty of Spinner and Bottlenose dolphins around. Possibly the most exciting encounter, though, was a Minke whale coming to play with the dive boat. If only Grae had looked up as it swam through his bubbles...

May 2008 - New era in training!

Dive Munda have had their first elearner students....so what would you expect to see??? 4 hammerheads on their 3rd dive! Huzzah!!!!

March 2008- Living History!

Whilst looking for Keizo Kondos long lost watch on the Nell, Grae came up instead with an unusual pressure guage dislodged in the crash.

For the full story about Justin Taylins visit to Nagoya, Japan on March 21 2008, after tracing the Nell pilot, please go to: http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/g3m/munda.html

Its Hammerhead time! - February 2008

Resort dives will never be quite the same again for Dive Munda instructor Grae after bumping into a 3 metre Scalloped Hammerhead at 12m. It's hard to explain to someone who's never been underwater before that they just aren't supposed to see that sort of thing on a DSD! Hopefully there will be many more sightings now that we are in Hammerhead season which is Decemeber - March. Jen was less happy. however; although she's delighted that her Open Water student saw a Dugong swim past on one of her course dives, Jen would have been much more thrilled if she'd caught sight of it herself.....

New Find: a local spearfisherman reported that he found a plane wreck in the lagoon, so we took a look. Upside down and largely intact in 14m of water, we found a D3A2 'Val' - a Japanese WW11 dive-bomber. Efforts are underway to uncover details of the circumstances under which this rare aircraft type came to crash into the Roviana lagoon. If we come up with any information, it'll be posted here.

There everywhere: although we were concerned about a brief outburst of enthusiasm for shark-finning, the local communities have acted to protect their marine resources and shark populations in the Munda area are as healthy as ever. Blacktip, Whitetip and Grey Reef sharks are seen routinely and often in numbers, and we're finding more and more sites where the big Silvertips will come up. In addition to the Scalloped and Great Hammerheads, we also get occassional sightings of Silky, Tawny Nurse, Bronze Whaler, Leopard and Bull Sharks. It's not just the sharks, of course, but the fact that the numbers and the range of species indicates that the marine environment here is thriving. their marine resourcesD3A2 'Val'

Check back here for more news and updates soon.. or contact us at:

Phone & Fax: (677) 62156
Email: divemunda@solomon.com.sb

Cheers Jen and Grae