Location

Wong’s Reef is east of the large Fergusson Island, i.e. half a mile west of the small island of Uama. Although the area is partly sheltered from the influx of the open sea, this dive cannot be made when there are strong winds. The intensity of the currents varies from a half to two knots and visibility is nearly always excellent. Nine metres below the surface the reef forms a plateau, a hundred or so metres long and about 50 metres wide; one section to the SE rises to just 5 metres below the surface. To the west there is another small bank, separated from the main channel at a depth of 16 metres. The current nearly always comes from the S-SE.

Dive

You dive from the Melanesian Discoverer anchored at 5 metres from the part of the reef closest to the surface. Abounding in coral formations, fish, clams, sweetlips, groupers, anemones, clownfish, parrotfish and surgeonfish, this reef is particularly attractive for its extraordinary variety of fish species.

Descending southwards you will come to a vertical wall plunging down to the sea bed, with bushes of black coral; the branches of these conceal numerous hawkfish, waiting immobile for prey to pass by, while shoals of curious fish swim all around.

Keep the wall to your left and, at a depth of 25 metres, you will reach a point where the reef extends outwards. Again there are large bushes of black corals and lower down, at about 40 metres, you will often meet a large school of barracuda and grey sharks swimming in the current; these will not hesitate to approach the diver to satisfy their curiosity. On the east and west sides of the reef there are numerous gorgonians and whip corals and on the sandy bed, between 30 and 50 metres down, you can find various dartfish and garden eels. The corals growing on the walls include a comprehensive selection: small crabs, shrimps, nudibranchs, including the uncommon Phyllodesmium Longicirra.

On the reef ledge at a depth of 9 metres you will often see sweetlips and several gapers swimming against the current, waiting for a cleaner fish to come and free their mouths and gills from parasites. This scene is an excellent subject for photographs. As you rise you can stop in the shallower part of the reef, where the boat is anchored, to observe the numerous clams adorned with alcyonarians. Also found here are various types of anemone with their ever-present clownfish. These amusing fish will provide a delightful spectacle should you have to stop for decompression.

When the current is strong this dive can only be made by the most experienced. No night dives are envisaged here.