Conserving Kimbe Bay - what would you do if one day you realized that the side-effects of the industry you helped to introduce were starting to degrade the pristine environment of your backyard - turn a blind eye... hug a tree perhaps? Well, if you are anything like Max and Cecilie Benjamin, you fight long and hard to protect it and establish a framework that will empower the local population to take ownership of the process. Easier said than done, particularly in that complex equation that is Papua New Guinea... But Mahonia Na Dari, next door to Walindi Plantation Dive Resort, is living proof that it can be done and a testament to …
Dive Locations
Ambon – Maluku’s Magical Island
Diving Ambon: Indonesia is without doubt a country that can constantly surprise and delight you - usually when you are least expecting it! The huge archipelago of more than 17,000 island offers some of the best diving in the world, ranging from the incredible reefs of Misool in Raja Ampat to the amazing critters of the Lembeh Strait. The island of Ambon, in the Spice Island province of Maluku, is best known for the muck and critter diving along both sides of it's massive natural harbor. It is also the home of the Twilight Zone - possibly the most prolific and certainly the weirdest muck site in the country. But the island also …
The Conservation of Kimbe Bay – Part 1
Kimbe Bay Conservation - there is a line of thought among the marine scientific community that Kimbe Bay is probably where the first corals originated – a theory that has evolved as a result of the various surveys conducted to assess and quantify the bay’s biodiversity. Do the math as they say... almost 900 species of fish, 10 species of whales and dolphins and 400+ species of stony corals. To put that in a global perspective – in an area roughly the same size as California, it is estimated that Papua New Guinea is home to almost 5% of the world’s marine biodiversity. Just under half of that fish fauna and virtually all of the …
Diving Bali: The Insiders Guide to the Liberty Wreck…
The wreck of the USAT Liberty, just off the beach at Tulamben in the north-east of the island, is Bali's most famous dive and people travel from all over the world to experience it, so much so that on a really busy day there can be up to 150 divers on the wreck.... So is its popularity killing it and is it still worth diving - or should we just move on and leave it to the backpackers? In January this year I decided to immerse myself on the Liberty and rather than 1 or 2 dives a day like I normally do on the wreck when I stay in Tulamben, I did 4 to 5 a day for 6 days... Getting up at 5 so that we could be in the water by 6 everyday …
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Diving Tofo – Death on the Beach
Tofo Death on the Beach... A beach landing in the surf is something you never take for granted. So doing it the hard way with no engine requires a combination of skill and strength... Watching the tiny fishing boat get through surf to the safety of Tofo beach was quite something. The crew of three rowed furiously, but seemed unfazed by it all - clearly something they had done many times. The southern end of Tofo beach is where the fishing boats are dragged up on the sand. It's a hive of activity early morning as the fishermen return from their trips to the offshore reefs. All the activity caught my attention as I looked for …
Papua New Guinea: The Facial Tattoos of Oro Province
One of the most visually intriging things about the local villagers around Tufi in Oro Province are the facial tattoos worn by many of the women – something you would not really be aware of without making the effort to visit them… Tattoos, and body art in general, have enjoyed a significant renaissance in western society over the last 20 years or so and have become both a badge of honor for those seeking to firmly establish their non-conformity and a trendy fashion accessory to others. So it was quite fascinating to see them as an integral part of village customs rather than a recent phenomenon. From an anthropological perspective …
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Mozambique Megafauna Article
Mozambique Megafauna Article... Along a 200km stretch of the Mozambican coastline, on the southeastern seaboard of Africa. Mother Nature has conspired to create what can only really be described as the perfect underwater biological storm. For it is in this remote area that several major African and Indian Ocean currents converge. Together they produce unique and powerful counter-cyclic eddies that suck up rich nutrients from the deep trenches to the south. Creating huge quantities of zooplankton in the process - the life source of oceanic mega fauna. This remarkable mechanism has been occurring largely unnoticed for …
Papua New Guinea: A Kiap Returns…
I have to be honest and admit that I had no idea what a Kiap actually was until I met Doug Robbins & his family over a drink on the verandah of Tufi Dive Resort’s main lodge. Doug had been a Kiap in Papua New Guinea for 4 years from 1969 to 1973 during the Australian colonial rule, and two of those years had seen him & his wife Annette stationed at Tufi. Kiaps were officers of the Australian colonial administration stationed in remote locations to provide the overall management of that area. They were very much multi-functional and required to cover a wide range of tasks, from basic law & order through to census surveys …
Diving China: The 1800 year old Lion City of Qian Dao Lake
Once home to more than 200,000 people, Lion City is now submerged some 30m below the surface of Qian Dao lake in south-west China. I heard about the 1800 year old city back in 2008 while I was living in Shanghai on an 18 month work assignment and the thought of diving it intrigued me. I had stumbled on the local Shanghai diving community quite by accident and was surprised to discover that there are actually several dive shops in the city of over 20m people. But they all seem to exist solely to train expats and then take them on trips outside of China, as there is literally nowhere to dive around the city or along the nearby …
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