Lamen Bay

From the beach the bay looks like nothing is happening. Underneath, a seagrass meadow is at work, and its grazers are the reason people fly to Epi: dugongs, with green turtles alongside, moving slowly over the pale grass. When one surfaces it barely folds the water.

Vanuatu's environmental scientists name Lamen Bay a northwest Epi dugong hotspot, its meadow grazed by dugongs and green turtles. The honesty that comes with that: these are wild, vulnerable animals at the eastern edge of their species' range, threatened by boat strikes, entanglement and excessive tourist interaction, and a sighting is never owed. National guidelines exist for exactly this bay's kind of encounter, written, in the scientists' words, to make every meeting a positive experience for the dugong: keep your distance, never chase, touch or feed, let the animal choose. Guesthouses along the shore arrange slow-boat dugong tours and visits to Lamen Island's community across the water, and Epi remains one of Vanuatu's least-visited islands, which is much of its point. Come for the meadow and its patience; the grey shadow, when it comes, is a gift.