Solomon Islands

SOUTH PACIFIC

Some of the best diving in the world is in the South Pacific. Destinations such as the Solomon Islands, the Philippines and Indonesia contain some of the lushest most dense coral reef systems found anywhere. Their reefs teem with sea creatures of all sizes and shapes and framed by gorgeous coral reefs.

For those who have some knowledge of World War Two history in the Pacific, the Solomon Islands were the focus of major land and sea battles between 1942 and 1943. Guadalcanal, the main island, evokes horrific memories of bloody battles as the US strove to eject the Japanese from Guadalcanal in order to capture the airport, called Cactus Field. This was the only island in the Solomon’s that contained the ability to handle large and constant air traffic. There’ve were smaller airports such as on New Georgia Island, but Cactus Field was the largest and most important in terms of depriving the Japanese of a significant air base and securing the base for American troops and materials to move westward. It was part of the plan for the US to hop-scotcvh its way westward form island to island to eventually press a large-scale attack of the Japanese mainland. The Solomons form parallel arms of three islands. In WWII, the sea between these two arms was called the “Slot”. This was a main focus of attacks of Japanese planes and ships as the US desperately clung to its beachhead on Guadalcanal, captured the runways and moved up the chain of the Solomons to Bougainville and onward to New Guinea.

The Slot is also referred to as “Iron Bottom Sound” due to the substantial number of shipwrecks lying on the bottom. You can still see some remains of crashed planes in the jungles. During the times I was there, there was a museum maintained by an islander consisting of planes he dragged out of the jungle as well as war materials washed ashore from sunken freighters.

The citizens of the Solomons are mostly Melanesians while the rest are mainly Polynesians. Through a connection to a brisitsh judge, I was able to sit in on a parliament session in Honiara, the capital of Guadalcanal. Solomon Islanders have traditionally been very friendly toward Americans. The Japanese rule of the Solomons was cruel and the Solomon Islanders have always been grateful to the US for ejecting the Japanese from the Solomons. Many of the Solomon Islanders worked closely with British and Australian coast watchers, reporting to the Americans Japanese plane, ship and troop movements as they hid from the Japanese in remote areas.  

A dive expedition to the Solomon Islands has to be on a liveaboard ship in order to truly experience all the Solomons have to offer. My destination was New Georgia Island, several hundreds of miles northwest of Guadalcanal. This is a large island containing a large lagoon called Marovo Lagoon. It is considered the world’s finest double-barrier-enclosed lagoon, bordered by the New Georgia and Vanunu Islands on one side and a double line of long barrier islands on the other. We would anchor in the lagoon at night for protection from the likens and dive the fringing reefs on the edge of the island. When anchored at night in the lagoon, islanders would come from huge distances in dug-out canoes through shark-infested waters to trade fruits and vegetables for essentials and to come aboard and socialize. During some days, we went ashore in “tinnies” (small aluminum motorboats) to the coastal village of Mbili where fruits and vegetables for the ship were purchased, and exquisite teak carvings could be purchased. The tribe was given autonomy over the New Georgia reefs and this was part of the relationship that permitted us to dive there. I spent time with Luten (phonetic spelling), the Mbili chief. He was an engaging and charismatic man, and I enjoyed his company immensely. The diving along the New Georgia fringing reefs was spectacular. There are terrific currents that bring in the entire food chain. As a photographer I wanted to see out-of-the-way places and was told of a pinnacle hundreds of feet deep where sharks would congregate at sunrise. I dove down the pinnacle to a substantial depth and waited as long as my dive computer allowed. Alas, no sharks bothered to show up!     

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