Celebrating the Remote and Intimate in Papua New Guinea
From recent travels I sensed that a lot of liveaboards are now deployed worldwide. I was curious to know the exact numbers, and an online search showed that there are 69 in the Red Sea, 64 in Raja Ampat, and even the Galápagos Islands have 10 dive liveaboards now.
Then I queried how many liveaboards dive Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The answer confirmed what I already knew. I had taken a drone photo of Walindi Plantation Resort and saw two boats at the dock: the Febrina and Oceania. They are the only two in that region, and it seems they are the only two in PNG these days.
That low number is odd, considering the Coral Triangle liveaboard culture in PNG began nearly four decades ago. Bob Halstead, who was instrumental in that development, recalls the early days: “We ran adventure camp and dive safaris for about seven years and then realized we had to get a liveaboard to do these properly. We hired a naval architect and had the Telita built. The inaugural trip was Christmas 1986 with Amos Nachoum. We lived on board for the next 10 years, exploring everywhere and finding unexplored spots.”
The Telita, Golden Dawn, Tiata, and Chertan were popular PNG liveaboards back in the day, but that was then, and this is now. The two remaining liveaboards coordinate their cruising schedules with each other and the day dive boats so they are never at the same site at the same time. When diving Kimbe Bay and the nearby sites, you will be the only divers on the reef, which is special and reassuring, even if it means a long trip from North America to get there.
Kimbe Bay
Situated along the northern coast of New Britain, the largest of the numerous islands that comprise the Bismarck Archipelago, Kimbe Bay is sheltered by the Willaumez Peninsula and fed by the Bismarck Sea. A fairly narrow and shallow sand shelf is punctuated by a perimeter lined with fringing reef and a precipitous drop-off plunging to more than 3,300 feet (1,000 meters).
Under the right conditions, three iconic seamounts — Bradford Shoals, Inglis Shoals, and Joelle’s Reef — are spectacular dives, specifically for the marine life they attract. Kimbe Bay is touted as a refuge for biodiversity, and scientists speculate that it contains 60% of the coral species endemic to the Indo-Pacific and at least 860 of the fish species identified in the Coral Triangle.
Resort-based daily dives concentrate on about 40 named sites within Kimbe Bay, while liveaboard expeditions venture further offshore as weather and seasonal vagaries permit. We timed our trip for October to dive Kimbe Bay along with the Witu Islands and Fathers Reefs. These sites are typically accessible from mid-September through November and then again from April through June. While plenty of diving is accessible in Kimbe Bay to satisfy even the most ardent enthusiast, our 10-day combo tour provided our dive itinerary with better visibility on the offshore reefs and a greater variety of reef structures.
We began our trip with a checkout dive at Restorf Island. While only a short distance from the dock at Walindi, it is a diverse site. The island has a high profile and is heavily wooded, with several different offshore environments. A hard coral reef is along the island’s northeast tip and some deeper sites are to the west, where a scattering of bommies decorated with red sea whips dot the sandy slope — the omnipresent signature of the classic PNG reefscape.
Other colorful filter feeders such as orange elephant ear and large barrel sponges compete with massive sea fans, suggesting there is sometimes current here, although it was totally slack for us. Divers who brought a camera with a 100mm macro lens on the checkout dive made a good call. The sand flat over which we dialed in our buoyancy hosted a large colony of garden eels and easily photographed sand dwellers such as gobies, flounder, and various species of dragonets.
Being immersed in these waters reminded me of perhaps the two most iconic Kimbe Bay photos of all time, both by David Doubilet. I presume he photographed his image of a circle of barracudas with a diver at Bradford Shoals since that reef features large schools of chevron barracudas. I would get my opportunity there later in the cruise.
Doubilet’s over/under photo of a man and boy on their dugout canoe with pristine lettuce and staghorn corals below was from Tuare Island, where we found ourselves the second morning at sea. His shot ran in National Geographic, and then Alert Diver used it for the cover of our Winter 2018 issue. We couldn’t be in the vicinity without paying homage to the same reef, so while the rest of the group dived at the nearby Joelle’s Reef, one of the dive guides escorted me to the island in the boat’s inflatable so I could shoot over/unders there.
I was lucky to find some local children in their dugout canoe. They were gracious about posing, particularly after our crew managed some bartered model fees for them. While the “over” was compelling with the island and the kids topside, the “under” didn’t match the corals from Doubilet’s image. His photo is from 2013, and being there in October 2024 demonstrated that global warming has taken its toll on the shallow reef, where the coral was sparse compared with a little more than a decade ago. That wasn’t the case everywhere we dived, but as a historical referent this reef confirmed that nowhere is immune from climate change.
Not wanting to get skunked by missing Joelle’s, which is consistently referenced as one of Kimbe Bay’s premier dives, I joined the day’s second dive. I was excited for my great fortune in finding right under the boat a particularly photogenic balled-up anemone, its lavender mantle providing a lovely contrast with the resident clownfish.
During the week I discovered that the balled-up-anemone visual is typical along many reefs. Maybe it was the time of the day, month, or year, but it eventually became almost mundane to see them along the reef. Schools of batfish and turtles complemented the pristine lettuce coral decorating the reef slope.
The Witu Islands
The long-range weather forecast suggested the winds might pick up later in the week, so we decided to run overnight north and west to the Witu Islands. There is less protection from a swell while offshore, so we wanted to visit the Witu and Fathers Reefs sites while we could. We could duck back to the protection of Kimbe Bay if the seas got choppy. We awoke to a before-breakfast giant stride on a dive site called Widu South.
The reef was resplendent with branching corals, primarily various species of staghorn, just beneath the mooring. Not so long ago I would usually have swam past these acres of contiguous hard coral fields while searching out colorful soft corals or schooling fish at greater depths. The recent collapse of so many of these reefs to coral bleaching, however, forced me to pause and marvel at what remains, still so vibrant and pristine. These reefs are free from dynamite fishing, cyclones, crown of thorns sea star predation, or any of the other myriad water-quality challenges our reefs in the Western Hemisphere face. This kind of environment is why we travel.
At Goru Arch we entered a realm of deep indigo water with the lavish soft corals and sea whips that are emblematic of PNG. The site is a long arc of reef with pockets of marine life, including sweetlips at cleaning stations, midnight snappers, and masked pufferfish. Wire Bay (pronounced like weary) is more of a black sand bay, making a 100mm macro lens better suited for it. I found good opportunities with spine-cheeked anemonefish, lizardfish, twinspot gobies, and nudibranchs too plentiful and diverse to ignore.
Keeping with the theme and without needing a lens change, The Crater delivers more nudibranchs and charismatic critters such as blue ribbon eels, peacock mantis shrimp, and octopuses.
Barney’s Reef begs for wide angle for the soft corals and massive orange elephant ear sponges decorating the wall, while nearby Krackafat adds schooling jacks, barracudas, and batfish to the Witu visual stew.
If I had to pick a single favorite dive of the whole trip, it would be Kilibob’s Knob in the morning after our overnight steam to Fathers Reefs. While I swam from the dive platform to the seamount, a large school of approachable batfish caused me to dawdle in midwater. By the time I approached the reef, a firestorm of strobes brought a pair of cuttlefish into view. Being late to the scene, I hovered in midwater until my friends abdicated the photo ops, and then I moved in to get a few shots. The cuttlefish never moved more than a few feet, which I took as confirmation that our proximity was not overly intrusive. Topping the ridge there were abundant anemones with various species of clownfish and a large school of bigeye trevally.
The Arch is another iconic Fathers Reefs wide-angle destination noted for the abundance of pink and red soft coral clusters that provide dramatic accents for the coral arch in the background. Capt. Alan Raabe of the Febrina was the first to dive many of these sites, and while they are now moored and familiar from the decades of dive charters, I can imagine how thrilling it would have been to be among the first to see a site like this or Jayne’s Gully.
I made a strategic blunder while diving Bradford’s Shoal, a seamount at the mouth of Kimbe Bay that rises to 65 feet (20 m) from about 6,560 feet (2,000 m) deep at the bottom. It was the third dive of the day, and I wasn’t going to do 45 minutes at 60 to 80 feet (18 to 24 m) as we were briefed, so I planned to enter the water later and still come up with the rest of the group. It was calm and extraordinarily clear, with zero current. What could go wrong?
The big schools of barracudas and jacks were there, exactly as we were told, but they were no longer reef adjacent and had moved to midwater. The moral of the story is to be there early and move slowly. The fish apparently don’t like lots of bubbles and flashes. I’ll know better next time.
The weather forecasts proved to be accurate, and by the time we returned to Kimbe Bay the visibility had significantly deteriorated. Our last morning’s dives to Christine’s Reef would have been glorious for wide-angle images had the water quality cooperated, but a glance over the side confirmed macro would be the better choice this day.
Given the days of stellar visibility we had in the Witu Islands and Fathers Reefs earlier in the week, I was not unhappy. I needed more critter captures, and Christine’s Reef delivered. My favorite was my final shot of a pipefish. While it was only at a depth of 60 feet (18 m), it was the second of two productive and time-consuming dives, so I was edging close to my no-decompression limits.
This subject — a male with a brood pouch with eggs running along much of his underside — deserved a few more shots though. Having the fish situated within a crimson sea whip for the background made it more appealing. A quick review of my digital capture confirmed what my dive computer was also suggesting: It was a wrap.
How To Dive It
Visas: PNG does not currently have a visa-on-arrival process in place, so you will have to apply for your visa in advance. You will be required to make your first entry to PNG within six months of the visa grant date. Apply no earlier than six months and no later than one month before your intended PNG arrival date to ensure you have your visa for the right time. Find more information on immigration at ica.gov.pg/visa/visit/visitor and the latest travel requirements at papuanewguinea.travel/.
Use the official PNG Immigration and Citizenship Services Authority website (ica.gov.pg) to apply for a tourist visa. Choose the Easy Visitor Permit (30 Day). You will be asked for the following: evidence of funds (a bank statement), your passport page, and a cover letter provided by your destination services provider. Ensure you have at least one blank page in your passport and that your passport is valid for at least six months from your PNG departure date. All travelers must show a return or onward ticket.
Getting there: Most international air travelers will enter PNG at Port Moresby International Airport. If you are connecting to an Air Niugini domestic flight on the same day, a domestic check-in transfer counter is just past the customs desks. Once you have your domestic boarding pass, you can proceed to the domestic terminal, a short walk from the international terminal. To dive Kimbe Bay you will need a domestic flight to Hoskins Airport and then it’s a 55-minute drive to the hotel and boats.
If you are flying into PNG with Air Niugini and connecting the same day to an Air Niugini domestic flight, you should be allowed an additional 33 pounds (15 kilograms) of checked luggage for dive gear. This arrangement is between PNG Divers Association and Air Niugini, but not all counter staff know this, so you may have to remind them. The regular weight allowances for economy passengers on Air Niugini are 50 pounds (23 kg) for international flights and 35 pounds (16 kg) for domestic flights unless you have prepaid for more.
Insurance considerations: Before you depart, make sure to choose comprehensive travel insurance to cover trip cancellation, accidents, medical care, and loss of baggage. The nearest hyperbaric chamber is in Port Moresby. PNG does not have an emergency rescue organization, and a diver evacuation, if needed, must be arranged with private air transport companies. Since the expensive emergency transportation and treatment costs are each guest’s responsibility, you will be required to have evacuation insurance suitable for divers visiting remote areas.
Malaria prevention: Consult your physician or a travel doctor about malaria-preventative medication or other necessary vaccines before your trip. Malaria is prevalent in New Guinea but easily prevented. Whether taking an antimalarial or not, the best preventative measures are to use a personal mosquito repellent and cover up during the early morning, late afternoon, and early evening hours with loose, lightweight cotton clothing. Typically, mefloquine (Larium) is not recommended as an antimalarial for divers because some side effects mimic symptoms of decompression sickness. Atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone) is the preferred antimalarial medication for most divers.
Currency and payments: PNG’s currency is the kina. You can exchange cash at currency counters within most international airports before your trip. Resorts and liveaboards accept U.S. dollars and credit cards, so there is no reason to carry kina unless you intend to shop in the village.
Environmental and Safety Fee: A $9 per dive day fee supports the recompression chamber and the work of the PNG Divers Association.
Dive conditions: Water temperatures generally range between 81°F and 88°F (27°C and 31°C) year-round, which is suitable for a 3 mm wetsuit. While the water is warm enough to wear only a rash guard or shorty, there are stinging corallimorphs on the seafloor, so it’s prudent to have skin protection for legs and arms.
Explore More
See more of what makes Papua New Guinea special in Stephen Frink’s bonus photo gallery and in this video.
© Alert Diver – Q1 2025