Beqa Adventure Divers

When you get caught with your mouth full… 👀🦈

Just another day on the Fiji Shark Dive…. ‘Stumpy’ has no table manners and absolutely no regrets 🤣🦈



📸 Tashi Blue

Tawny Nurse Sharks 🦈 Nebrius ferrugineus

If you’ve ever dived with us at Shark Reef Marine Reserve, you’ve probably noticed that tawny nurse sharks are rarely alone. In fact, they are one of the most social shark species we regularly encounter on the reef.

And there’s something particularly interesting about these groups: they’re male. 💙

Tawny nurse sharks exhibit sexual segregation, meaning males and females can occupy different habitats and spend much of their time apart. At Shark Reef Marine Reserve, the tawny nurse sharks we encounter are males — and it’s not unusual to see several resting, moving and interacting together.

Why the separation? Research has shown that sexual segregation in sharks may be driven by a combination of factors, including differences between males and females in energy requirements, activity patterns, habitat use and thermal preferences, as well as the reproductive demands placed on females.

So while our bull sharks give us a fascinating window into individual social preferences, tawny nurse sharks show us another side of shark sociality altogether: coalitions and cooperation.

Sharks are far more socially complex than the solitary-predator stereotype suggests. And the more time we spend observing the same individuals, the more of that hidden social world we get to see. 🦈🌊
📸 Tashi Blue

Another High School session is complete! It was a privilege to guide you all through your PADI scuba training and to introduce you to the underwater world! 🌊.

Sota Tale we hope to see you again soon! 🦈🇫🇯

Not everything on Shark Reef has teeth. 💙🐢

A beautiful Hawksbill Turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) cruising through Shark Reef Marine Reserve. While the sharks may be the stars, the reef they help protect provides habitat for an extraordinary community of marine life, including critically endangered hawksbill turtles.

Hawksbills play an important ecological role on coral reefs, helping maintain healthy reef communities through their highly specialised diet. Yet despite their importance, they remain threatened globally by habitat loss, poaching and harvesting, bycatch, nesting disruption and climate change.

One of the things we love most about Shark Reef Marine Reserve is that protecting sharks has never meant protecting only sharks. We protect everything that calls it home. 🌊 🪸

And sometimes… one of those residents swims past and gives you a little wave. 🐢💙

📸 Tashi Blue