Bula!

Continuing my cruise along the South Pacific, my next stop was Pacific Harbour – a small town on Viti Levu, Fiji’s main island. Pacific Harbour is home to Beqa Adventure Divers (BAD), a local shark conservation group masquerading as a dive shop.

BAD has managed to set up a shark ecotourism operation that prides itself on providing a mind-blowing experience to its guests while also ensuring they are prioritizing conservation, research, and safety. Working with the local government and villagers who traditionally fished the area, they established a marine protected area on the reefs in Beqa Lagoon, the Shark Reef Marine Protected Area. In return for the village’s fishing rights, BAD exclusively hires locals and every tourist that enters the marine reserve waters with BAD must pay a fee that is put towards the village’s community bank account.

The protagonist of the BAD shark dive is the bull shark, a massive shark that can be observed in great numbers from January to October, after which point their numbers dwindle as their priorities shift from feeding to mating and pupping between November and December.

In addition to the bull sharks, seven other species of sharks can be seen at Shark Reef Marine Reserve, including white tip reef sharks, black tip reef sharks, and grey reef sharks.

During my time in Pacific Harbour, I also spent some time with the Projects Abroad Shark Conservation Volunteer Project, a shark conservation project that collaborates closely with Beqa Adventure Divers. In addition to conducting important research on the sharks of the area, Projects Abroad also takes on volunteers and in return for their help, the volunteers learn how to dive and are educated about the marine biology, conservation and research in the area.

And now I’m off to board the National Geographic Orion for my Lindblad Expeditions trip!