Where is all the fish in Fiji?

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Here is a short report I did on our trip along with some photos and videos. As stated in the report, the trawler in the video is not the one on Carpet Cove, but is at a nearby site called Joe's Best. It is a newer wreck, is in much better condition, and sits on the lower side of a coral head at about 85 fsw. It sits at an angle with the stern a little deeper than the bow.

Just keep in mind that seeing wildlife is rather hit or miss and a case of being in the right place at the right time. My wife did get to see her first octopus while there and other divers reported seeing things that I did not see. Even my wife, who was right beside me during dives, has asked once we got on the boat if I saw such and such and of course I didn't. And the opposite is true also that I've seen things others didn't. And that's happened just about everywhere I've ever dived.

ETA: Just past the 5:00 mark of the shark dive video, you can see the huge grouper that @tarponchik mentioned.
 
Fijian's love spearfishing. Jacks, small groupers or Coral Trout as we call them are easy targets.
People also may not realise that some fish are long lived and slow reproducers. My friend once caught two large red emperor and was a bit disgusted when we told him those fish may of been over 35 years old.
Fiji is not a big fish destination
Good point. If there are scuba spearfishers, the fish learn very quickly and the bigger snappers, groupers etc, will disappear at the sound of bubbles.
A way to test this is to free dive these spots alone and see what's there.
 
Fiji is a very poor country. They don't have scuba gear. When i was spearfishing with the locals my gun was a source of amazement. They were using a rusty old shaft and a piece of rubber. The majority have very little shops and eat directly from the ocean. The ocean is there supermarket
 
Yes, that is what I recall seeing in my two trips (Beqa Lagoon Resort and the Nai'a liveaboard). Compard with the Caribbean, it was quite spectacular. Compared with the best of the Indo-Pacific, maybe not so much.
And indeed when I started my search for the trip I was kinda expecting Fiji to be on par with other locations in the Indo-Pacific, whose video are spectacular. Mid and large sized fish are there but not so abundant/frequent. Even French Polynesia seems to have a higher fish density, of all sizes - although not quite as beautiful corals I have seen in Fiji videos
 
And indeed when I started my search for the trip I was kinda expecting Fiji to be on par with other locations in the Indo-Pacific, whose video are spectacular. Mid and large sized fish are there but not so abundant/frequent. Even French Polynesia seems to have a higher fish density, of all sizes - although not quite as beautiful corals I have seen in Fiji videos
After Fiji we did SOF trip to GBR, and they had plenty of large potato cod and mid-size coral groupers and reef sharks. But again, very few moray eels, rays, and just 1 (one) cuttlefish in 15 dives. Our Yongala dive was a dive of a lifetime, though.
 
Here is a short report I did on our trip along with some photos and videos. As stated in the report, the trawler in the video is not the one on Carpet Cove, but is at a nearby site called Joe's Best. It is a newer wreck, is in much better condition, and sits on the lower side of a coral head at about 85 fsw. It sits at an angle with the stern a little deeper than the bow.

Just keep in mind that seeing wildlife is rather hit or miss and a case of being in the right place at the right time. My wife did get to see her first octopus while there and other divers reported seeing things that I did not see. Even my wife, who was right beside me during dives, has asked once we got on the boat if I saw such and such and of course I didn't. And the opposite is true also that I've seen things others didn't. And that's happened just about everywhere I've ever dived.

ETA: Just past the 5:00 mark of the shark dive video, you can see the huge grouper that @tarponchik mentioned.
Bega Lagoon Resort is absolutely terrific. Great food and accommodations. The beach dive is.... not that great. Next time try Paradise Resort in Taveuni Fiji. Great place, totally destroyed a few years ago (2017?) when a hurricane hit it, went south, turned and came back and hit it again. Past patrons came and helped to rebuild it. That should say a lot about how nice it is and how the people are.
 
Taveuni Island, Fiji, Paradise Resort I stayed there in 2016 and they had a very nice dive shop with rental gear. I always bring my own gear minus tank and weights just because I prefer to dive gear I know well. The diving there was terrific, the food good and the accommodations very nice too. We did 3 boat dives a day and several dives on the house reef which was terrific with lots to see day or night.
 
Bega Lagoon Resort is absolutely terrific. Great food and accommodations. The beach dive is.... not that great.
I agree. It also depends on the wind. If it blows across the shore, it is OK; if it blows from the sea, visibility is poor. Still, I did it 3 times, including one night dive, and enjoyed some moments. They have lots of Lionfish and some anemones that open up at night. I also finally managed to take decent shots of Blue-Green Chromis
 
Bega Lagoon Resort is absolutely terrific. Great food and accommodations. The beach dive is.... not that great. Next time try Paradise Resort in Taveuni Fiji. Great place, totally destroyed a few years ago (2017?) when a hurricane hit it, went south, turned and came back and hit it again. Past patrons came and helped to rebuild it. That should say a lot about how nice it is and how the people are.
Thanks, I'll have to keep Paradise Resort in mind if we ever venture that way again. Sounds great.

And we didn't even do any shore diving. We could tell there wasn't much to see around the beach area. It just didn't seem like it was worth the effort to get our equipment off and then back to the boat (even though the crew would have handled all of that for us.) We did take a walk along the shore at low tide one day. That was interesting. We saw a couple of different species of starfish as well as some crabs. The rock formations (lava flow) was fascinating as well.
 
My husband and I went to Fiji about 3 years ago (Shortly after Cyclone Winston caused so much damage). We stayed a week on Vita Levu and dove in the Bligh Waters, then a week at tiny Sau Bay resort off Taveuni and dove the Rainbow Reef. I don't know how much damage Winston did to the reefs (didn't seem like all that much), but we much preferred Rainbow Reef. More variety in the reef, more fish, and I think fewer people diving. We also didn't care so much for the Wananavu resort on Vita Levu - probably mostly because the food was so mediocre there. Anyway, just my 2 cents.
 

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