April 15th
2000
Lawadi - Papua New Guinea
My first day on Starship and also my first in Papua New Guinea … what a culture shock! Having flown direct from New Zealand where the temperature was hovering around 15 degrees, to around 31degrees here in PNG, the heat and humidity took some getting used to!
My first day was also unfortunately Anne-Lise’s last day, and she has left me with a hard act to follow, keeping the English journal for this next leg of the journey. Anyway, I will dive straight into it, (excuse the pun) … after an awesome ‘Enrico breakfast’ we steamed 5 hours eastward out of Alotau in Milne Bay, and through Hornbill Passage to a place called Lawadi, our dive site for the next few days.
As Trevor laid the anchor we were surrounded by a flotilla of outrigger canoes paddled by the local Papuans offering a variety of beautiful sea-shells, necklaces, fruit and carvings. We didn’t let this distract us from our mission; to get in the water as soon as possible!
For me diving here was an awesome contrast to what I have been used to over the past few months at the Poor Knights in New Zealand. For a start there was no need for the 7mm wetsuit I wear at home, getting into the water was more like slipping into a bath!
Lawadi is what is known as a ‘muck dive’ … that is rather than white sand and coral reef, it is a rubble bottom straight off the shore, and home to some really fascinating creatures, in addition to the usual colourful fish species.
With this sort of dive it is best to go slowly and get in close so as to be able to see the more cryptic (camouflaged) creatures like Scorpionfish or Mantis shrimps, and the smaller life like nudibranchs. (Nudibranchs are highly coloured and beautifully patterned little sea slugs that have external gills like little ‘Christmas trees’ on their backs).
My first dive with Michael lasted an hour and forty minutes, and put me into sensory overload … so much cool marine life to look at! There were all the familiar critters like Moray eels, Goatfish and Wrasse species, but with unfamiliar colours and patterns. Then of course there were the new ones for me, exotic Lionfish, brilliantly marked Triggerfish, Moorish Idols, Surgeonfish, Grouper and Damsels, all with the most incredible shapes and colours.
Michael was concentrating on macro (close-up) footage on this dive, and got some great footage of a ‘crazy eyed' Mantis Shrimp looking in two different directions at once! A tiny Boxer crab also captured our interest, these are amazing little creatures which attach sea anemones to their claws as a defense mechanism!
Other ‘finds’ included a bizarre looking Leaf Scorpionfish, (which as you probably guessed, looks just like a leaf), some very beautiful nudibranchs, and a species of shrimp that lives in a symbiotic relationship with its host sea anemone. There were several ‘cleaning stations’ along the way as well, and these were a hive of activity with fish queuing up everywhere looking for an ‘unemployed’ shrimp to give them the ‘once over’.
…to cut a long story short it was a great dive, and after a short break to refill the tanks we were in again for another hour or so until dark!
Now sitting here writing this, my first day’s journal, (and eating ice cream) I can look back on the last 24 hours and say I am looking forward to tomorrow already, although now I am going to go and do some ‘homework’ reading through the ‘Indo-pacific Coral Reef guide’ before Michael, DJ, Enrico, James and Brandon get back from their night dive!
Talk to you tomorrow,
Diver Dave.