One of the places in Fiji we were most excited to visit was the Namena Marine Reserve. Namena has long been known as one of Fiji’s best diving areas, and having our own dive compressor and tanks onboard meant we could spend a few days exploring the reserve on our own.
We were in Namena on two different occasions, and spent a total of seven nights there. Beforehand, we had stopped by the Namena Marine Reserve office to buy our tags for the park. Each person pays FJD50 for a year’s pass to the park. The reserve is a no-take area, meaning no fishing is allowed, despite the surrounding reefs traditionally belonging to the communities of Kubulau District.
The system is a nice example of conservation directly benefiting the people who give up access to a valuable fishing ground. Money from the tags goes back to the local communities and has been used to support conservation, fish wardens and education. In return, the reef has been protected from fishing for decades.
Arriving at Namena, it doesn’t take long to see why it is worth protecting. At the centre of the reserve is tiny Namenalala Island. There used to be a resort here, but it was completely destroyed when Cyclone Winston passed directly over the island in 2016. Ten years later, there is finally plenty of activity again, with a new resort currently being built and expected to open after construction is completed.
With much of the island either protected or part of the resort development, there wasn’t much exploring for us to do ashore. We were allowed onto one of the beaches, and just go for a very short hike of about three minutes to the beach on the other side of the small island.
Namena is surrounded by a large barrier reef, with passes, walls and pinnacles dropping into the deep water of the Koro Sea. We explored the reefs around the lagoon by snorkel and scuba. The difference a no-fishing zone can make was immediately noticeable, with plenty of fish life and healthy coral throughout the reserve.
The highlight was diving The Chimneys, one of Namena’s best-known dive sites. The site consists of three underwater pinnacles rising from the depths, their sides covered in coral and surrounded by an incredible amount of marine life. We descended alongside the pinnacles and slowly worked our way around them, surrounded by reef fish and some of the most beautiful soft corals we have seen in Fiji.
There was so much going on around us that it was difficult to know where to look. Huge numbers of reef fish surrounded the Chimneys, while the pinnacles themselves were covered in beautiful soft corals. After all the diving we have done around the world, it takes quite a lot for a dive to really stand out, but this one did. The Chimneys was without doubt one of the best dives we have ever done.
For our second dive we headed to the outer reef on the eastern side of the lagoon. Here, the reef drops away into the deep blue, creating a completely different dive from the Chimneys.
We followed the wall with the deep water beside us, again finding healthy coral and plenty of marine life. Beautiful soft corals covered sections of the reef, while schools of fish moved along the drop-off.
After the concentrated explosion of life around the Chimneys, the outer wall felt bigger and wilder, and is a reminder of just how isolated Namena is in the middle of the Koro Sea.
The captain did some local dives around the boat, and took some macro shots as well.
We came to Namena mainly for the diving, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. After months of exploring Fiji’s reefs, including the famous Rainbow Reef and Great White Wall, Namena still managed to stand out.
The combination of a protected reef, very little fishing pressure, abundant marine life and spectacular soft corals made this one of our favourite underwater stops in Fiji. And after diving the Chimneys, we could easily understand why divers travel all the way to this little reef in the middle of the Koro Sea.
We left Namena to go back to Savusavu, the biggest city on the second largest island in Fiji, Vanua Levu. There, we will check into a marina to do provision and prepare the boat for the cyclone season north in the Marshall islands.