Ta Island

This long skinny strip of land stretches across the horizon in front of the dive boat. In fact, it’s barely an island - more of a fringing reef at the north end of the Russell Islands.

We descend down at one end and the plan is for a lazy drift down the island until we tuck in around the end to surface and await a pick up. It’s a one way drift, perfect for an easy morning dive.

As we descend we are immediately greeted by huge purple elephant ear sponges. These are the largest I’ve seen in my diving travels and are easily 5meters or more in circumference. I’m told they can grow up to 2meters in height and 10meters around so these are only mid-sized. The reef is also home to numerous sea cucumbers who live in a parasitic relationship to the sponge as they feed off its nutrients. They look like white worms on the purple sponge.

Also on the reef we find numerous colonies of fire clams or flame scallops with their flashing light displays. Our divemaster gives us the sign looking like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever as he signals ‘disco clam’. 🕺

Near the end of the dive we tuck around the end of the reef and come up into the shallows for our safety stop. Here we are greeted by dancing damsels in every colour as they dart around the top of the reef. The golden damsels are in a particular frenzy as they have recently deposited eggs onto the waving sea whips.

📌 Ta Island, Russell Islands, Solomon Islands

📷 Adam Beard

🐟 Elephant Ear Sponge