Beqa Lagoon Diving
Carpet Cove
Carpet Cove is one of the better diving sites to be found in Beqa Lagoon. The site has 2 main features and it will depend where you start this dive which comes first. You are likely to descend on to the site of the Japanese fishing boat which was sunk in Beqa in 1994. The wreck sits upright, entirely intact in water ranging in depth from about 20 to 30 metres.
As you make your way around the wreck you will see it is covered in encrusting sponges and soft corals. Among the fish here are lionfish (often pretty big ones) that move slowly within the more sheltered parts of the ship, their pretty but dangerous spiny fins splayed.
Only a few fin kicks from the wreck is the wall which forms part of the main reef where the rewards of investigation are plentiful. Hard corals, soft corals and fans all speckle this Beqa reef. Also surely featuring in any set of pictures from Carpet Cove will be the wide-eyed gaping of a blue ribbon eel or two as there always seem to be a few specimens around.
You may also see brilliant purple queens, red-and-black anemonefish, 2-tone dartfish and black-spot pygmy wrasses somewhere in the vicinity. Curious batfish have also been known to circle close to divers, so don't be alarmed if one appears right in front of your mask.
Also worth looking out for in and around this reef are the many and varied scorpion leaffish - green, yellow, black and white - wafting passively with the movement of the water. Leaffish are quite common throughout the whole of the Beqa Lagoon area. Of course the name of the site refers to the carpet of anemones in the shallower parts of the dive so it is no surprise that plenty of anemone fish call Carpet Cove their home.
Carpet Cove Reef Basics: Wreck dive and slope
Depth: 6 - 30m
Visibility: 10 - 30m
Currents: Gentle
Surface conditions: Can be rough
Water temperature: 24 - 28°C
Experience level: Beginner - advanced
Number of dive sites: 1
Diving season: All year round
Distance: 8 km from Pacific Harbour on mainland Viti Levu, 3.5 km from Beqa Island
Access: Beqa and Viti Levu resorts
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