The Great White Wall – Taveuni Fiji (16.7° South, 179.8° West)

As you descend down into the majestic blue deep, you realize you’re travelling along a great lavender wall.  Going along the wall, you can even get your nails manicured by a light sunset-colored cleaner shrimp.  The Great White Wall in Taveuni, Fiji is one of the best dives in the world because it is a great technical dive. During the last ice age, the oceans around the Fiji islands remained among the warmest waters on Earth.  Because of this, the ocean in Fiji has some of the most marine biodiversity in the World today.  It is also unlike anything you have ever seen because of its uniqueness.  All open water scuba divers should scuba dive The Great White Wall in Taveuni, Fiji.

Open water scuba divers should scuba dive The Great White Wall because it is a great technical dive.  One reason is because you can drift with the current along the astonishing soft coral wall without having to kick or exert yourself, unless you want to go back against the current.  Also, you must time your visit as you can only dive it twice a month when the moon is half full, as that is when the soft corals are full. Another reason it is a technical dive is because there is lots of current in the first 30 feet, or first atmosphere, of depth, so you have to go down to between 50 to 90 feet to avoid the heavier current.  You could go deeper than 100 feet, but you would not want to, since it would only be more of the same soft corals, crustaceans and nudibranchs to see.  The Great White Wall goes down 300 feet, but that would be extremely dangerous and dark to dive, and beyond the training of most divers.  A final reason it is a great technical dive is you can swim through large lava tubes that go through the coral top and wall.  That is why The Great White Wall is a great technical dive.

In addition to being a technical dive, the ocean in Fiji offers some of the most marine biodiversity in the World.  For example, it is known for having many colorful species of nudibranch.  For those of you who don’t know what a nudibranch is, they are colorful species of snails without shells and with exposed lungs that live under water.  When I dove the Wall, the naturalist on my boat said some researchers in Fiji have recently discovered that there are many more species of marine life in Fiji than expected.  They had predicted there were about 400 species in Fiji, similar to Hawaii and the Caribbean. They found that there were over 2,000 species of fishes, hard and soft corals, nudibranchs and other creatures.  Open water scuba divers should scuba dive The Great White Wall because during the last ice age, the waters around the Fiji islands remained among the warmest waters on Earth and therefore have some of the most marine biodiversity in the World today.

A third reason open water scuba divers should come and scuba dive The Great White Wall is because of its uniqueness.  It simply looks as if it was manufactured.  There is a lot to take in while you are diving The Great White Wall.  There are so many different types of corals and fish, it is amazing.  Some of the beautiful fish you might see are the Parrot, Grouper, Angler, Tigger, Unicorn, Puffer, Trumpet, Butterfly, and Angel fish.  Also there are many types of unique coral.  In addition to the wall of soft lavender coral called Dendronepthya, you might see Brain coral, Fire coral, Fan coral and Tabletop coral.  Also, you get to explore a couple of lava tubes with large schools of fish along the way.  Most dives cannot compare to The Great White Wall because of its uniqueness.  That is why it is unlike anything you have ever seen.

In conclusion, all open water scuba divers should scuba dive The Great White Wall. It is one of the best dives is the world, because it is a great technical dive. Also, the ocean in Fiji has some of the most biodiversity in the world.  Lastly, it is unlike anything you have ever seen because of its uniqueness.  If you are now ready to book your dive, you might find getting to Fiji is expensive. But hopefully you now know more about why you should dive the Great White Wall. As the ancient Greek philosopher Plato said, “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.”

 

A couple notes about this post:

1. As we are traveling the World, we do not have room in our luggage for a dive camera. The photos above are not mine, but look just like what I saw. I have given copyright credits in the photo descriptions and thank the photographers for taking them.
2. This blog was written as a writing assignment for my English class. I received 50/50 for it!