We went to Fiji in July 2004 to dive from the Fiji Aggressor II. It's a live-aboard dive boat that sleeps ten divers and wends its way through some of the 322 Fiji islands, stopping at dive sites too far from land to be accessible to day boats. We were on the boat for seven days, and on land for two before we boarded. As usual, we took a lot of pictures during the dives, and a few on land as well. Linda took most of the photos seen here unless otherwise noted.

We went to Fiji in part to find a different sort of fish than we typically see when we dive in the Caribbean, and we weren't disappointed. The waters in Fiji are loaded with anemones, and the anemones are hosts to loads of anemone fish. There are many different types of both anemones and anemone fish, the most famous, of course, being the clown fish of "Finding Nemo". We didn't find Nemo, but we did find a lot of this type of clown fish (possibly a Richardson's clown fish) peeking out of their homes and ducking back in just as we clicked the shutter.

This gargantuan red anemone was so vibrantly alive with all sorts of attendant fish that we could have spent several dives just exploring it. It covered at least 100 square feet of reef. We didn't see other red anemones while we were there.

In addition to clown fish, we saw a lot of these white-spot humbug fish (a type of damselfish) in the vicinity of the anemones. They were tiny, they were everywhere, and they were hard to photograph because they were there and then not there.

Many people call them starfish, but they aren't technically fish, so the proper name is "sea stars". We saw several like this with big fat arms, as well as a few of the more delicate variety.

This is a crinoid, a relative of the sea star. Crinoids are nocturnal, so this one was closed up when we saw it. To feed on plankton, they open up their frilly arms to catch it as it drifts by. If they don't like their current residence, they can detach themselves from the reef and extend their arms to walk or swim somewhere more desirable. (Linda actually saw this happening). Often some little creature lives inside their embrace. I took my flashlight along on this particular dive so we could experiment with using it as a light source underwater. It provided the yellow glow on the underside of the crinoid that you see here. (Most of the photos we have posted here were taken with natural lighting unless otherwise noted.)

The two fish seen here have the unlikely name "moorish idols". They often are seen in pairs. They're vegetarians, and that long dorsal fin on top shrinks with age. We saw quite a few of them, but once they became aware of us, they were generally wary. They don't swim quickly away, they just keep their distance.

On one dive we were led through what we thought would be a swim-through to another part of the reef. But it ended up being a huge cavern-like space that had openings to the surface so that light came pouring through in places. We saw these giant red fans there before we turned around and headed out.