Once the setting of warring tribes and World War II, the Solomon Islands are now a study in amazing reefs, fascinating wrecks and kind-hearted people. The Solomons archipelago is a wild place of belching volcanoes, atolls, sandy beaches and former cannibals — the islands stand apart, both for their biological diversity and war history. Dives here teem with all manner of marine life.

I was swimming as hard as I could, and yet behind me death was catching up. Kicking hard, I put my last remaining energy into escaping, but behind me a canoe full of determined head hunters raised their spears. Turning my head and looking down, my last thoughts focused on the beauty of the coral reef below.

Out the plane’s window, green valleys stretched far into the distance as I awoke from an uncomfortable plane-induced semi-slumber. The lush island of Guadalcanal came into focus below as we began our descent.

Sleepily, I reminded myself that cannibalism ended here many years ago. Diving in the warm, deep waters of this easternmost point of the Coral Triangle is much more fashionable than headhunting nowadays.

Within hours of touching down, I was comfortably on board the Bilikiki live-aboard, heading out into the Coral Sea’s vast blue waters. After 17 years in the dive industry, filling tanks, guiding, instructing, and now working as an underwater photographer, I was at long last exploring one of the final realms on my bucket list: the Solomon Islands, a small archipelago whose 992 islands stretch across 1,500 km of the tropical South Pacific.

The Marine Life

Say you owned a satellite photo of the Pacific. The farther west you’d look, the more species you would see — especially underwater, where the coral reefs have made South Pacific islands world famous with divers. Places like Papua New Guinea, Palau and the Marshall Islands are legendary diving destinations. But it’s the Solomons archipelago — a wild place of belching volcanoes, atolls, sandy beaches and former cannibals — that stands apart, both for its biological diversity and war history.

Within seconds of back rolling into the water on the first dive off jungle-smothered Mary Island, I felt at home. Fairy basslets and chromis swirled metres above the reef slope, picking invisible zooplankton from the slight current. Reef-building corals sloped downwards in a textured mat of earth tones while butterflyfish, angelfish, parrotfish and surgeonfish swam in and out of the invisible byways only they knew. Predatory fish lurked in the shadows.

The diversity at Mary Island almost defies description. Most Western Pacific reefs collect a great expanse of life all mashed together in a chaotic jumble, and from the start it’s obvious the Solomons’ clear, warm seas are endowed with an abundance of this vibrant life.

“The Solomon Islands comprise one of the most intact and biologically rich oceanic archipelagos on Earth,” wrote a group of scientists from the American Museum of Natural History who recently completed a study here. They’ll get no argument from me: Our dives teem with too many species competing for far too limited resources. But this biodiversity has always been the magic of the Pacific.

For the first week we see extraordinary high and low tides. Coral colonies growing in the islands’ shallows are left high and dry for hours, yet they seem to “weather the storm” with minimal tissue death. Fringing reef flats surrounding the islands descend to terraces of living surfaces oozing with invertebrate life. Corals compete for space with anemones, sponges compete with tunicates, and bivalves grow all around.

Slightly deeper, the limestone erodes into numerous tunnels, caverns and shallow caves, providing swim-throughs and ample hiding places for fish and invertebrates that prefer to lurk in the dark. It’s a who’s-who of reef life, including bigeye jacks, blackfin barracuda, reef sharks and clouds of small, bright fishes.

After days of diving and photographing, my mind is a jumble of colours, textures, patterns, competition, feeding, mating and countless other behaviours. No two reefs are the same. Each island and each habitat seems to reflect what species arrived there and, through competition, established itself over time. It’s an intricate patchwork quilt of underwater habitats, all working in concert.

Wages of War

For some divers, the attraction of the Solomon Islands isn’t the robust reef, mangrove and sea-grass habitats, it’s the rusty time capsules left on the sea floor from a violent chapter in human history.

Japan had grand designs for the entire South Pacific in World War II, and landed in the Solomons during the early months of 1942. In August 1942, the U.S. invaded Guadalcanal during Operation Watchtower; months of fighting ensued, both on land and at sea. As a result, dozens of war ships now reside on the floor of “Iron Bottom Sound”, the expanse of sea just north of Guadalcanal. Though most of these war wrecks are too deep to explore recreationally, a number act as artificial reefs and are considered superlative dive sites. These include the Kinugawa Maru, Hirokawa Maru, Azumasan Maru and the Kawanishi “Mavis” seaplanes.

From our anchorage next to Mbanika Island and White Beach, its hard to imagine the combat that bloodied these shores. White Beach had been an American military base and the slope descending from it was littered with corroding war relics as well as nudibranchs, flatworms, mantis shrimp, crocodilefish, scorpionfish, archerfish and pipefish.

Fringed by clusters of red mangrove, the island was also home to villagers, who paddled out in their dugout canoes to watch and giggle at the divers who explored the shallow waters.

At sunset, new local residents appeared almost exactly where I had been shooting critters minutes before. From the safety of our live-aboard, the crew used torches to illuminate two pairs of reflective eyes along the waterline: saltwater crocodiles. And from the size of them, I don’t think they regularly feed on nudibranchs.

People Married to Environment

With all the attention focused on rare marine animals, shipwrecks, and high-octane dives, it would be easy to overlook the people who care for the reefs. Except everywhere the Bilikiki went, it was obvious the islanders were visibly and intimately tied to their environment — it’s their highway, their recreation area, and, above all, their source of food.

Before Europeans stumbled on these islands, the islanders lived in fiercely loyal tribal villages. Their war parties regularly paddled substantial distances in canoes in search of someone to rout. Today, when the Bilikiki anchors close to villages, a fleet of dugout canoes bears down on the ship, but instead of seeking out human trophies, villagers instead sell fresh fruit and vegetables to the cook, while blond-haired village kids show off their paddling and diving prowess.

The Bilikiki offers a small sum to each village, and the money stays in the village, with no intermediary NGOs or government bureaucracy running interference. The money helps ensure the reefs not only remain healthy for divers, but also for future generations of Solomon islanders to use as renewable sources of food and other products.

Days later, Bilikiki headed back to port. The setting sun lit the clouds above Guadalcanal with heavenly colours, but even the sky paled in comparison to the richness I’d seen underwater. These islands seem touched with an indescribable sense of remoteness, hiding an ecosystem that only appears to those with patience — and a good back roll.

As my flight out of Guadalcanal soared skywards and I began to drift to sleep, I knew this night’s dream would be not of head hunters, but of my inevitable return to this enchanting land of reefs, caves, wrecks and giggling blond-haired children.

Solomon Islands Divers Guide

Average water temp: Annual water temperatures average 28-29 degrees C/low to mid-80s F

What to wear: 3mm wetsuit

Average viz: Visibility averages about 18 meters/60 feet

When to go: Year-round. There’s a gentle southeast trade wind from April through October. Temperatures average about 30 degrees C/86 degrees F and rainfall can be expected much of the year, though December through March is wetter.

Info: Experience diving in the Solomon Islands with Solomon Islands Dive Expeditions!
Bilikiki Cruises operates two live-aboards in the Solomon Islands, the MV Bilikiki and MV Spirit of Solomons.

Main Attractions

Hirokawa Maru/Bonegi 1: A Japanese transport ship sunk in 1942 by American bombers lying just off Bonegi Beach on Guadalcanal. The shallow sections of the ship begin at just five metres and are covered by corals and fish life. The ship follows the sandy slope down to over 45 metres and the deeper parts are more intact.

Leru Cut: An iconic site, especially for photographers, dramatic beams of sunlight pierce the thick jungle canopy above a narrow, 100-metre-long cut in the island wall. Colourful invertebrates cover the walls inside, and make great subjects.

Mary Island: An extinct volcano, remote and jungle-clad Mary Island is surrounded by deep walls with swim-throughs and prolific marine life, including schooling barracuda, jacks and reef sharks.

Barracuda Point: Huge schools of barracuda and horse-eye jacks live here. Coral rubble areas are home to anemones, ghost pipefish, leaf scorpionfish, and octopus.

Before you go: Take a PADI Underwater Naturalist Specialty Course.