Diving In Papua New Guinea

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MV Paradise Sport ,
143 Lake Street,
Cairns. QLD. 4870
Australia

Mike Ball Dive Expeditions
Telephone: +617 4053 0500
Fax: +617 4031 5470

Email: rsv@mikeball.com

Website: www.mikeball.com

Reservation & Inquiries:
Email: resv@mikeball.com

USA PHONE:

Tel:: 1-800-952-4319, 1888 MIKE BALL
noon - 9pm Pacific time, 3pm - midnight Eastern time
Email: usa@mikeball.com

Itinerary & Vessel Information:

http://www.mikeball.com/png/index.html

[color=sea green]Paradise Sport[/color] is the flag ship of Mike Ball Dive Expeditions and is the ultimate in luxury, comfort and 5 Star liveaboard service. Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea has more reefs and islands than any other PNG province and harbours the best biodiversity of marine life.

You will enjoy a superb mix of wall dives, wrecks, nautilus dives, shark and exotic creature dives. Enriching the whole dive experience are cultural exchanges with isolated villages in tropical settings and calm night anchorages in pictureseque bays.

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MV Telita ,
P.O. Box 778,
Port Moresby. NCD 121
Papua New Guinea.

Telephone: +675 321 4210
Fax: +675 321 4277

Email: tufitelita@datec.com.pg

Website: www.tufitelita.com

Based at Tufi Dive Resort, the MV Telita is once again operating as a live-aboard.

Divers wanting the ultimate experience in diving charter vessels will not be disappointed. Operates in the Tufi region including Milne Bay and Madang. Many of the sites are well known, developed by pioneers Bob and Dinah Halstead when they owned the Telita

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PNG South: Solomon Sea

Milne Bay/Tufi/D'Entrecasteaux Islands

From the port city of Alotau, live-aboards exploring the Coral Sea have a variety of options—inside the bay, north along the coast toward the village of Tufi or out among scattered island groups like the Trobriand and D'Entrecasteaux Islands.

Suzy's Shoal is a quiet dive near Sanaroa in the D'Entrecasteaux Islands, with huge sea fans and gray reef sharks patrolling the drop-off.

The most famous dive in the Solomon Sea is the BlackJack Wreck, an intact B-17 "Flying Fortress" lying on the sand bottom of the village of Boga-Boga at 150 feet. Deep wreck fans will also appreciate the S'Jacob off Musa Point.

This World War II shipwreck at 115 to 180 feet has never been stripped and it explodes with colorful marine growth.

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Papua New Guinea possesses some of the best dive spots in the world and many divers know that by now. Deep or shallow reefs, coral walls, sheer drops, barrier reefs, atolls, passages, lagoons and wrecks (many of them W.W.II wrecks), all with a unique variety of species, are found throughout the region.

Papua New Guinea is a dream of divers. Crystal clear waters, "paradise islands", and mountain ridges covered with thick rainforests or spectacular volcanoes provide an exclusive setting for the best dive vacations imaginable.

About twice the amount of fish species as compared to the Red Sea and roughly ten times as many species of corals are found here compared to the Caribbean.

A very special characteristic for PNG's diving is the deep water which comes very close to the shore. Only a couple of feet away from the beaches are vertical dropping reef walls which reach down to 1000 feet or more. This can be found on most parts of the northern coastline, on the southern shores of New Ireland and New Hanover (Kavieng area) as well in some areas of the Milne Bay.

In the more sheltered bays delicate coral formation are spreading to enormous size, which cannot be found on barrier reefs. This is typical for Kimbe Bay in West New Britain.
Another fantastic dive destination is the Eastern Fields which is to be found 170 km south west of Port Moresby. Located between Papua New Guinea and Australia, the Eastern Fields are a truly unspoilt part of the Coral Sea.

Another distinguishing feature is the closeness of dive sites to the Islands. Short boat transfers and the additional benefit of the unique South Pacific atmosphere sets the diving in PNG ahead of other popular destinations like the Australian Barrier Reef.

Hundreds of wrecks, many of them W.W.II wrecks are scattered across the nation above and below the waterline. Boats, planes, barges and submarines, some of them still in excellent condition, have been transformed into living coral reefs. Rabaul, Kavieng, Loloata (Port Moresby) and Madang are good places to go for wreck diving.

But it is not only those perfect natural features that make PNG the best place in the world for diving. A small fleet of outstanding live-aboard dive vessels and a number of excellent dive resorts offer outstanding service to divers. Wherever you go in PNG, you will be one of few divers who explore the reefs. PNG is far away from any form of mass tourism.

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Papua New Guinea is home to some of the world's most spectabular diving. Located in the Indo-Pacific Area, it is said to have twice as many marine species as the water of the Red Sea, and up to five times as many as the Caribbean.

PNG is surrounded by the Bismarch, Coral and solomon Seas, whose constant movements feed and enrich the marine environment. From tiny nudibranchs to the worlds biggest fish the harmless whale shark - divers encounter a stunning array of exotic species.

The immense diversity of dive sites includes barrier reefs, coral walls (drop-offs), coral gardens, patch reefs, fringing reefs, sea grass beds and coral atolls. Wreck dive sites provide a collection of ships, aircraft and submarine wrecks from World War II.

Many wrecks are still in excellent condition and some locations have as many as 30 or 40 sunken ships, all fairly near the coast. The water temperature varies from 26 deg.C along the edge of the Coral Sea, to 29 deg.C in the Bismarck Sea.

One can dive in Papua New Guinea all year round, with the high season generally from May to November. Dive operators offer both land-based and live-aboard tours. Land-based tours usually consist of a day tour involving up to three dives, whilst live-aboard tours can take seven to 10 days, with up to five dives a day.

All land-based operators offer resort dive courses and have fully equipped dive shops with diving and snorkelling ear for hire.

The majority operate on small to medium sized properties, with an emphasis on personal attention in a relaxing environment. Dive sites are a short distance from the resorts.

While the range in size of a live-aboard dive boat is between 45' and 120', with differing levels of amenities, the excellent quality of diving is synonymous with each operation. Several operators now offer nitrox and rebreathers and most boats have facilities for camera equipment changing. Papua New guinea has become known as the 'underwater photographers paradise' with many international awarded-winning photos being taken in PNG waters.

With 19 dive operations spread along 17,000 km of coastline and 45,000 sq. km of reef systems, divers can enjoy minimal contact with other dive groups and in some cases even discover new dive sites.

PNG has its own hyperbaric recompression chamber. Located in Port Moresby, the DAN-sponsored facility is part of the US based Sub-aquatic Safety Service network and is supported by the dive operators through a small chamber levy.

While the reefs teem with life, they are extremely fragile. In recognition of the importance of preserving the marine ecosystem, members of the Papua New guinea Divers Association actively promote the use of moorings on regularly-dived sites.

The need to practice sensible diving and respect the underwater environment is emphasised and in doing so, the message to all divers is very clear: please look, but don't touch !

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Marlin 1 Dive Charters
P.O. Box 80,
Alotau. Milne Bay Province
Papua New Guinea

Satellite Telephone: 0561 1451 17098

Email: info@marlin1charters.com.au
Website: www.png-dive.com

Marlin 1 Dive Charters take small groups (maximum of 6) on dive trips in Milne Bay. MV Marlin1 is a purpose built 50ft dive boat complete with stabilizers, desalinator and air-conditioning for your comfort. The owner operators specialize in photography, adventure and research diving charters.

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Diving and snorkeling enthusiasts keep coming back to Papua New Guinea for what they describe as the ultimate experience.

Fishing zealots always looking for a bigger challenge, are never disappointed.

The pristine waters, clean rivers, streams abound with marlin, tuna, mackerel, New Guinea bass, black bass and barramundi, surrounded by soft and hard coral reefs, home to small colourful fish.

Whatever your preferences are when on holidays, in Papua New Guiena every exciting step will be printed indelibly in your memory.

Article written by John Rei

John Rei, Media and Promotions Executive, Tourism Promotion Authority, has been involved in planning and implementing several major initiatives to promote tourism in PNG aggressively to global markets.

John has received several awards for writing and photographing PNG tourism highlights.

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M.V. Chertan Liveaboard Dive Adventures
Milne Bay Marine Charters
MV Chertan
P.O. Box 176,
ALOTAU. MBP
Papua New Guinea

Telephone: +675 641 1167
Fax: +675 641 1291

On Board:
Phone: 61-0-145-11-4619
Fax: 61-0-245-21-4619

Email: mvchertan@bigpond.com

Website: www.chertan.com

Cruising to the islands of Milne Bay, the 60' Chertan offers six comfortable twin-berth cabins. It specialises in rare and bizarre macro photography and, on 10 day trips, seeks out the large pelagics.

Dive sites include the Engineer and Conflict group of islands, all within easy cruising distances and surrounded by coral reefs.

M.V. Chertan, a purpose-built dive boat which has begun operations out of Alotau in Milne Bay and is equipped with a full complement of crew which includes your host and divemaster Captain Rob van der Loos.

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Living Reefs of the Indo-Pacific
a photographic guide by Rob van der Loos

Living Coral Reefs is a field guide to locating many of the smaller crittors living on the reefs that usually use a host animal. Many of the pages show a large photo of the host animal on the left hand side and on the right. smaller photos showing what crittors live with or on the larger host animal. Other chapters deal with crittors in the MUCK. All photos were taken in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea.

Available from Rob Vander Loos for US20.00 plus postage and handling.

Email: info@Chertan.com
or: mvchertan@bigpond.com

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Blue Sea Charters ,
P.O. Box 494,
Madang. MP 511
Papua New Guinea.

Satellite Telephone: 05 61 1451 30880

Fax: +675 852 2300

Email: info@blueseacharters.com

Website: www.blueseacharters.com

Dive Sites: http://www.blueseacharters.com/DiveSites/divesites.html

Itineraries: http://www.blueseacharters.com/Itine...ineraries.html

Blue Sea Charters operates out of Madang on the north coast of PNG. One of the prettiest towns in the South Pacific, Madang offers a wide range of easily accessible dive sites and is also the prime location from which to access the remote outer islands and reefs.

These reefs are rarely visited by divers and provide spellbinding underwater action with superb visibility and prolific fish life. Dives comprise of a mixture of spectacular drop-offs, drift-dives and remarkably intact wrecks, including World War II American and Japanese fighter planes and merchant ships.