Page 499 - Melanesia
P. 499

MARY ISLAND

Mary’s island has plentiful reef sharks, big          both Jacks and Barracuda swirling toward the      hard downward and find a place to hold on.
schools of jacks, big schools of barracuda, oc-       sun. As you swim up thru the mass of fish, you    Mantas continue to swim back and forth along
casional tuna. Big bumphead parrotfish are com-       have to pay attention to your depth gauge to      the top of the wall, feeding in the current. This is
monly seen here, and you may see a napoleon           prevent too rapid accent.                         a high current dive site. You will be delighted by
wrasse. Typically an entire day of diving is done                                                       the dozen or so mantas that continue to swim
here. This is the main place for “big stuff” - defi-  DEVILS’ HIGHWAY: An advanced dive with strong     back and forth along the top of the wall, feeding
nitely a wide-angle site.                             currents (8 to 10 knots), but that’s where the    in the current.
                                                      mantas cruise. You’re dropped a couple hundred
BARRACUDA POINT: This site in on Mary’s Island.       yards from the wall in about 3 meters of water.
It has multiple schools (in the hundreds of fish)     Once you approach the drop off to the wall, kick
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