Diving at Namena – Grand Central Station and Chimney

Fiji is known as the “soft coral capital of the world”. Many marine biologists describe in their experience that their most preferred diving is the Namena Marine Reserve because it offers world class diving. Namena offers most diverse and beautiful diving experiences. This is because of its location – an island strategic one which is miles far away from the nearest town or city that is well developed. Also, not to forget the diverse reef habitat this place has, set in wide ranges of depth. The coastlines nearby are rich in mangrove forests and seagrass beds and they mostly feed the inhabitants of the main reef, including the newly recruited. Also, there are walls, vertically held, that are exposed to currents and dominations of sea fans. A combination of this array of habitats shows an environment hat is hardly send in other regions with comparable size. Namena, thus, supports a wide range of marine species and is a home to thousand plus species of invertebrates. It is consistent of about four hundreds of corals and five hundreds of marine plants that are known in the world through documentaries.

Namena is used as a pathway for cetaceans while they migrate. These include bottlenose dolphins, spinner dolphins, minke whales, pilot whales, sperm whales and humpback whales, which use this pathway for migration from June through August. Also, during the same time the whales migrate to the warm waters of Fiji in order to project their breeds and nurse the young ones. Namena doesn’t disappoint the turtle lovers too. It provides one of the few nesting beaches for the green and the hawksbill turtle species. Not to mention that Fiji is known for its 4 of the world’s seven marine turtle species, diminishing in number. The island is a home sanctuary for twelve species of shore birds, that are endangered, and is protecting them. Two of the best sites at Namena are Grand Central Station and Chimneys. GCS is a wall, well known for encountering pelagic fish, tunas, Barracudas, sharks, snappers, marble rays and so on. Divers often have amazing encounters with long, about 15 feet, hammerheads. Chimneys are the pinnacles, more of corals, macros and invertebrate dive. The visibility during the wet season i.e from November to April, for divers visiting Savusavu, is about 50-60 feet, and that during the cool winters (May to August) is 80-100 feet. Diving here during incoming tide brings clean salt water with soft colors of new coral recruits standing out more in a bit of current.