At the other end of the lagoon, is the wharf and shop of Solomon Dive Adventures ( check www.solomondiveadventures.com ).
It is probably the best community integrated dive operation in the Solomon Islands. The business manager Lisa Choquette has 30 years of experience diving and came from Hawaii.
Lisa in dive boat
She made every effort to train 5 local villagers to the Divemaster’s level at her own cost, so they can later take on running the dive business themselves in the future. Those five divemasters are boys, but she also certified four ladies, who unfortunately did not go any further but open water, some for getting pregnant… Shame, more ladies should take on diving in the Solomons.
Along with the dive business, Lisa opened a library for the community bringing a variety of books and DVDs, along with a kindergarten,
The kids from the headstart program
Lisa regularly organizes educational shows setting up the projector in the open area near the church. She is also often called upon for medical help, fixing bushknife cuts, or helping some kids to elocution, etc, etc.. Recently, she organised a big campaign to keep the village clean, teaching the local to pick up the rubbish and now, several beautifully painted 44 gallon drums ornament the main road! Rubbish is sorted, some recycled, paper and plastics are burnt. Another main campaign concerned smoking, another alcohol! Slowly, the messages spread through, with the added support of church sermons and the help of her divemasters…
60 something, Lisa is very active woman who is doing a lot for the community and educating the villagers about conserving their marine resources to a sustainable level through diving. A small marine reserve has been created as a community initiative to keep fish near the wharf so visitors can look at tame fish. No spearing allowed there!!
A juvenile batfish pretends to be a dead leaf
I forgot to mention, yes the diving in the area is worth it and the team know where to the most obscure species in the dive sites surrounding Peava! My underwater camera has broken down unfortunately so no good pictures! Mbulo Island, 3 miles across from Peava, has some sheer drop off on the Northern side, all protected from the SE swells. After a week, the plankton bloom had gone down and the visibility was up to 30m. beautiful caves and coral gardens with large gorgonian fans make for some nice landscape down deep at 25-35m.
diamondfishes
A dusk dive in Peava lagoon passage did bring some amazing nudibranchs, cuttle fishes and the famous flasher wrasses, which court by rapidly raising and lowering their dorsal fin at dusk. The lagoons warm waters host to many animals, gropers, turtles, puffer fish, rays, razorfish, painted flutemouth, and many surgeonfishes, and despite being a bit murky, are my daily swim, worth exploring again and again!
