Michael McFadyen's Scuba Diving - Hot Spot
A short distance from the wreck of the Toa Maru No 2 is Hot Spot. This is located about 12 minutes from Gizo on the northern side of Sepo Kokiti Island.
The reef here consists of a sloping reef dropping to 35 to 40 metres. From the mooring you head north dropping from 5 metres to 25 metre before going a bit deeper to 30 metres. You come to a point and it is here that you normally see the best fishlife.
On my October 2001 trip to the Solomon Islands, this site provided the best shark dive of the 14 days. We saw at least four whitetip reef sharks, four blacktip reef sharks, at least 10 smaller sharks and three graceful whaler sharks. As well, we saw lots of tuna, some huge humpheaded wrasse and the other normal fish found in these areas. There were even three firefish.
After the deeper bits, it is an easy matter to ascend back to five metres as you return to the boat. There is also a lot of interesting fish in this area.
Visibility was 30 metres and water temperature about 27.5°C. A very nice dive.
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