Tuesday 25 April 2000
Esa'ala, Papua New Guinea
Well I am having trouble concentrating on my writing right now; everyone is in the salon where I am sitting at my computer, watching ‘The Three Musketeers’! It is a grey overcast day outside, and we are on passage back to Esa'ala Wharf, so a movie is a good way to while away the time.
After leaving from Bunama East at 10pm and steaming all through last night, we arrived at Egum atoll around 7am this morning. It is a striking place, a small mushroom-like island rising out of the sea in the middle of nowhere, incongruously capped with lush green foliage and twisted tree trunks. The atoll was home to hundreds of Noddy terns, which were swooping and diving around the cliffs, as well as one large Sea eagle, which was perched on the tallest tree, lording it over the Noddy’s.
Incidentally, the Noddy tern gets its name from the habit courting pairs have of ‘nodding’ their heads to each other to show off their pale forehead patches. They are beautiful and efficient flyers, and feed mainly on small schooling fish and squid.
I had been really looking forward to diving this site, as it is known for being a good place to see large pelagics like Tuna, Marlin, and sharks. So when I jumped in with the camera it was with a sense of anticipation! (‘Pelagic’ loosely refers to an open-water species).
Trevor and I dropped down to about 40m and cruised along, keeping one eye on the reef wall, the other on the murky blue water to our left. Unfortunately the visibility was a bit disappointing, with a lot of plankton clouding the water, so we could only see about 10m. Maybe because of this, we didn’t see a great deal. A few small Tuna and Kingfish, schooling Unicorn fish, large Titan Triggerfish, and some big Emperors being our main sightings. Never mind, I am sure sooner or later I am going to see some ‘big stuff’!Each time we have a long voyage between sites, we have to make sure the STARSHIP is ‘passage ready’ which basically means that everything is stowed away or fastened down in case of rough weather. Since I have been onboard sea conditions have been good and hopefully they stay that way … touch wood!
While on passage everyone rotates through 2 hour watches, manning the wheelhouse and maintaining STARSHIP on course, monitoring all the instruments, and taking hourly readings of engine details, weather conditions and course. My ‘watch’ last night was from 2200-2400hrs (10pm-midnight) and despite it being late I enjoyed sitting in the wheelhouse with only the instrument lights glowing, watching our progress on the chart plotter and radar.As the Indo-pacific region has one of the richest areas of marine diversity in the world, and we want to experience this diversity to the fullest. This part of STARSHIP’S journey is very dive intensive. I know I have been rabbiting on about our dives and the marine life rather a lot, but hopefully none of you are getting too bored with the emphasis on the underwater world, and just in case, I will try to break it up a little more!
So,
for those of you who are non-divers, I am going to take advantage of this quiet
day to try and give you some brief background information on Papua New Guinea.
There is a very high diversity of plant and animal life here; 250 different mammals, including 60 marsupials; around 700 bird species, including the spectacular Birds of Paradise; and over 200 species of reptiles. There are known to be 13 different turtles (something I would very much like to see while diving), and two species of crocodile, (something I would rather see while not diving!).
Of course there are also thousands of weird and wonderful insects, notably some huge and colourful butterflies, and some of the largest beetles in the world.Papua New Guinea has had human inhabitants for around 30-40,000 years, with the first arrivals being from Asia. A large part of PNG was joined to Australia as recently as 6000 years ago and as a result the two countries share several species of plants and animals, notably many marsupial species.
The national race of Papuans fall under the category of ‘Melanesians’, characterised by Negroid features, dark skin and crinkly hair, although on some outlying islands they have a more Micronesian or Polynesian appearance and great smiles!
The rugged terrain of the country has resulted in much tribal isolation and therefore a huge diversity of cultures, languages and physical characteristics, all of which make this a really fascinating country.European visitation initially occurred in the 1500’s, with the Dutch being first to establish a colony mainly for trading purposes, you have probably already heard of the Dutch East Indies Trading Co. Britain laid claim to a part of PNG in the 1880’s, as did Germany, and in 1906 administration of British PNG was taken over by Australia.
Full independence didn’t come about until 1975 and Papua New Guinea is now run under a three tiered, democratic government, (national, provincial, and local).European introduction of the ‘cash economy’, has as usual brought its own set of problems to PNG and has had a huge and ongoing impact on the traditional culture of the country. Although in PNG it is not difficult to meet the daily needs of food and shelter, there are limited opportunities for the nationals to earn money, so for young Papuans I would guess there is some internal conflict between wanting what European culture can offer and letting go of their traditional lifestyle.
It is easy for me as a temporary visitor to think their simple, slow paced way of life is pretty special, but if I was stuck in a small village with no prospect of experiencing what else the world has to offer, I would probably think differently.
Unfortunately there always seems to be a trade-off with ‘industrial development’ … educational and medical benefits versus a loss of strong cultural identity and sense of belonging. The PNG culture is a fascinating one, so rather than just skim over it now, I will go into that in some detail in a later journal, along with the PNG concept of traditional ‘wealth’, which too is interesting!Large scale logging and mining is currently a threat to Papua New Guinea’s natural environment, as to a lesser degree is ‘slash and burn’ agriculture, but fortunately the recognition of traditional land ownership and the concept of ‘Protected Species’ management, along with the shocking examples of environment degradation set by nearby Asian countries has helped to encourage some conservation awareness in PNG.
Anyway, that is probably enough of a geography lesson for now…we have reached Esa'ala wharf and another night dive calls!
Catch you tomorrow,
Diver Dave.