Intermediate Fiji
Fiji
The capital of soft coral, and a place where feeding sharks funds their protection
It's called the soft coral capital of the world, and that's not brochure exaggeration: there are walls here where you can't see a single centimeter of rock, all of it covered in colonies unfurled by the current. In a lagoon south of the main island, a shark-feeding project pays villages not to fish.
In this profile you'll find why Fiji's soft coral reaches that density, how the shark-diving project works and the debate it carries, when to go and how cyclone season affects it, and what level each zone of the archipelago requires.
It's the best destination in the world for understanding what current does to a reef, and at the same time the most debated case of conservation funded through wildlife feeding.
Geography and access
Fiji is an archipelago of hundreds of islands in the South Pacific, with two main islands and a string of smaller islands spread across a large area.
Between the islands there are straits and passages through which an enormous volume of water moves with the tide, and that constant current feeds the soft coral colonies, which are filter feeders: the more flow, the more food and the more growth.
The result is walls and passages with soft coral coverage that in many stretches exceeds a hundred percent of the apparent substrate, with overlapping colonies in highly saturated colors.
In a lagoon on the south side of the main island, a shark-diving project has operated for years, combining controlled feeding, research, and an economic agreement with the villages that own the reef.
Access is by international flight to the main island, with domestic connections or boat crossings to the smaller islands. There are both shore-based operations with daily trips and liveaboards.
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