But if this happens on land, waters around this great island hold one of the greatest biodiversities of marine environment, with a lot of species of all sizes and colours.

    The whole island of New Guinea was occupied by Japanese and many battles occurred in it during World War II. Around Kavieng, in New Ireland, in the Bismarck Sea, we can find different wrecks of both sunken ships and planes. There are many Japanese, American and Australian airplanes in this bottom. For example, the Catalina Floatt Plane, we can find their engines quite well preserved, with numerous ammunition scattered on the bottom.

    Some ships lie here under these waters. They are from war and more recent, such as the Echuca Patch, former Korean fishing boat captured while it was fishing illegally in this region and sunk as a source of tourist attraction. Its image is one of the most classic of diving in the area.

THE SUBMERGED FOREST

    In areas with strong currents, as happens in the passages that connect the Bismark Sea with the Pacific Ocean, submerged forests appear. They are vast fields of gorgonians that, despite looking like trees and plants, are in fact colonial animals. They are made up of thousands of little creatures, polyps that are waiting for the food, plankton that currents carry to them.

    In Albatross Passage, Planet Channel or Matrix, we find some of the best examples. The feeling of being able to fly over these big structures, which in some cases are higher than 2 m., is a truly fascinating experience, close to the unreal.

    Diving in Tufi, located on the north coast of the main island, we have several options. Here we find an interesting landscape with some kind of fjords (areas where the sea enters on land, caused by lava flowing of a nearby volcano). This results in very good conditions for diving in their calm waters, especially for snorkelling and to enjoy many colourful fish.

   But if we seek more excitement we have to dive on the reefs that are parallel to the coast. They are real submarine towers; full of live and in very good conditions thanks to artisan fishing that is still practiced here by local people. Any encounter is possible: sharks, manta rays, turtles… a lot of emotion! Cyclone or Mulloway, to say two examples, will not disappoint us.

STRANGE CRIATURES

    Loloata, near the capital Port Moresby, offers a comfortable diving and especially varied. In its calm and clear waters we can enjoy magnificent forests of gorgonians and big colourful soft corals, together with a special diving called “muck diving”. This “dirt diving” is practised in a sand or silt bottoms where some of the most amazing creatures that we see on our dives live.

    Thus, with a little patience, we can discover always helped by a dive-master, tiny creatures of the most extravagant shapes from tiny seahorses, odd pipe fish, porcelain crabs among the sea anemones, terrifying evil fish or shrimp with rare behaviour and colourful.

Text and pictures: Juan Carlos García