The Solomon Islands consist of several groups of islands located east of Australia and south of New Guinea. The largest island, Gudalcanal, is best known as a World War II battle site. The Solomons have very healthy reefs, abundant fish life and very friendly, hospitable people.

These pictures were taken in September 2009 while on the dive boat Bilikiki. Our route took us from Honiara on Guadalcanal to the Russell Islands, the New Georgia islands and the Florida islands.

All photos were taken with a Nikon D300 digital camera, Nikon 105mm, 16mm and 18-200mm lenses in a Sea & Sea housing. Underwater light was provided by two Sea & Sea YS-120 strobes.

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Map of the Solomons	The Bilikiki at anchor	Dive-flag toenails are de rigueur!	Pooh under an overhang	Square-spot Anthia

Wire-coral goby, about 1/2 inch long	Yellow Anthia and a sea fan	Two Two-Spot gobies	Anthia hiding in coral at night	Diver and school of jacks

Large school of jacks	Gray Reef shark passing by	Anemonefish on the reef	Freckle-faced Blenny guards his hole	Regal Angelfish

Peterson's Pufferfish	Longnose Hawkfish in a sea fan	Ghost Pipefish	Nearly transparent anemone shrimp	Spotted anemone shrimp

Falco Hawkfish on a red sea fan	Dive buddies Pooh, Sara and Art	On the skiff heading out for a dive	Goby and blind shrimp	Butterfly Fish

Anemonefish at home	Picasso Triggerfish	Tiny Cowrie on a sea fan	Cuttlefish	School of barracuda

Diver in a current	Bi-Color Angelfish	Juvenile Anemonefish	Divers and a large sponge	Anemonefish at home

Striped Butterflyfish	Anemonefish on the reef	Sea fan and baitfish	Girl in a canoe	House on the lagoon

Canoes and jungle	Local boys and their canoe	Green jungle and clear blue water	Saltwater Crocodile	Early morning cannoes

Buying produce from the locals	Solomons sunset

The sea fans that grow in the Solomons are some of the largest I have ever seen. Some of them were
8 or 9 feet across. These huge fans are home to the pygmy seahorse, the smallest in the world.
These creatures are not much larger than a grain of rice and are almost impossible to see as they have the
same color and texture as the fan they live on. Like other seahorses the male carries the young before
birth. In some of the photos you can see the 'pregnant' male.

Bumpy seahorse	Male and female	Seahorse in her fan	Male and female

The Solomons are home to hundreds of species of nudibranch. Nudibranchs are snails without shells, usually
less than two inches long and brightly colored to discourage predators. The tree-like structure seen on the
backs of some species are their lungs.

Ornate nudi	Black and blue	Smooth	Mating nudis	Another black and blue

Wild spots	More spots

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