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Fiji: Pittman Reef

Location: About 25 miles north of Laucala and Taveuni Islands, Fiji.
You get there from Forbes Laucala Resort or with dive charter boats such as Matagi Princess or the Naia.

We went to the Pittman Reef to film sharks for a German TV programme. We had had some difficulty finding big fish (in particular sharks) around Fiji, there's lots of soft and hard coral; "But where is the big fish?" our question was.
According to our Fijian friends on the liveaboard Matagi Princess, Pittman Reef would be the place to go.
Pittman Reef is a small circular coral reef which would have been a coral island, had it been a bit higher. Big breakers pound the top constantly as there are no protecting land close in any direction.

The dive boat will go as close to the reef as it can safely do, and divers enter and immediately descend to about 10 m depth where the swell is no longer a problem. At this point there is (normally) nothing to film, it's all blue. We saw and filmed one big school of Barracudas right there, though. The reef wall stands out vaguely and as you approach it you will feel the current.
The current either sets North or South. In our case we were drifting North.

We did 4 dives here, all fairly deep dives of 30 - 40 metres. The sharks have a spot where a small canyon cuts in toward the reef, and here they keep circling around. The first two dives were not very successful as far as sharks go, but the reef wall itself is spectacular. We saw a lonely green turtle, but it was too far away and moving to fast to be filmed.

The sharks we saw were grey reef sharks, black tipped and white tipped sharks and bronzewhalers up to perhaps 2 m.

Filming on all dives were hampered by a very strong current. In the area where the sharks hang out the current is exceptionally strong, and the only way to stay around and get those shots is by hanging onto some coral. (As always: Find a dead piece of coral to hold on to, you will damage live corals by touching them). However, hanging on with one hand makes shooting a lot  more difficult. You need both hands to operate the various buttons and knobs on the housing. So, what I did was to get focus right, get the exposure right using both hands, while I was hanging onto a coral outcrop with my feet. Then, turning around, I used left hand as an anchor and the right hand looked after the camera and housing. We did manage to get some really nice footage, but it is one place I would like to go back to and do a whole series of dives.
Because of the depth and current the dives tended to be shorter than average, and the importance of keeping check on your air and no-deco time is paramount on dives like these.

Pittman Reef is an interesting dive for an experienced diver and photographer.

Hans la Cour Andersen
hans@tradewind.co.nz