DIVING in PNG

Diving in the exotic and unexplored waters of PNG.

Diving in Papua New Guinea
So many times we read and hear that certain place is "The Best Dive Destination in the World". Yet there can only be one true best. And indeed Papua New Guinea is one of the best dive Heavens of the world. It is home to some of the world's spectacular diving dubbed as the 'underwater photographer's paradise' with many international award -winning photos being taken in PNG waters. Located in the Indo-Pacific Area, Expects say that it has up to twice as many marine species as the waters of the Red Sea and up to five times as many as the Caribbean. Divers enjoy a huge diversity of dive sites including barrier reefs, coral walls (drop off), and coral gardens, patch reefs, fringing reefs, sea grass beds, coral atolls, and wreck dive sites. The wreck sites provide a collection of ships, aircraft and submarine wrecks from World War 2. The average water temperature varies from 25 degrees Celsius along the edge of the Coral Sea to 29 degrees Celsius 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

Dive operators and Accomodation based operators
Dive operators offer both Land Base and Live-Aboard Dive Tours. Land Base Tours normally consist of a day tour taking up to three dives whilst live-aboard tours can take 7-10 days, with up to five dives a day. Most land-Base Operators offer resort type dive courses and have fully equipped dive shops with diving and snorkeling equipment available for hire. For those bringing their own equipment there are facilities available in the main cities to clean equipment. The majority operate on small to medium size property, with emphasize on personal attention in a relaxing environment. Dive sites are short distance from the resorts. While the range in size of live-aboard dive boats 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. 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.

REEFS

Beautiful reefs
While the reef teems 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 emphasized and in doing so, the message to all divers is very clear: please look but don't touch. Papua New Guinea has been rated the TOP Dive Destination in the World 2002 Rodale's Scuba Diving Readers Choice Awards.