Sharks at Lissenung Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
Jul 162012
 
Sharks at Lissenung Island

About the site The two photos in this post were taken at different dive sites, both dived during my stay at Lissenung Island Resort. A week on a tropical island in PNG as prize for winning the Freshwater category of the Underwater Festival gave me lots of time to check out the sites in the area. As well as having great fun with the WWII plane wrecks and critters that I’ve shown you, I was also keen to catch some of the bigger animals on camera. The white tip reef shark above was one of many hanging out at the Nusa Blowholes. While the coral at the blowholes is less colourful than on the dropoffs on the other side of the [read more…]

Off camera strobes on the wreck of the Kate bomber

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  4 Responses »
Jul 022012
 
Off camera strobes on the wreck of the Kate bomber

About the site Following up from two weeks ago, I thought I’d add a few lines about another plane wreck I dived while staying at Lissenung Island Resort. The place featured above is a Japanese “Kate” bomber. Unlike the Allies, where American crews were assigned to a single aircraft, Japanese crews jumped in the closest available plane. The occupying Japanese moved to destroy all records in PNG towards the end of the war, and these two facts mean very little is known about the history of the Japanese plane wrecks around Kavieng. This particular plane was a Nakajima B5N, nicknamed a Kate bomber by the Allies and wrecked sometime during WWII. With a crew of three, she was the standard [read more…]

Propellors of the PBY Catalina

 Ocean diving, Wrecks  1 Response »
Jun 182012
 
Propellors of the PBY Catalina

About the site The Consolidated PBY Catalina was a hugely successful American-made flying boat, produced from the 1930s and still in service well into the 1980s. A multi-function aircraft, Catalinas were used through WWII for long distance patrol bombing, as convoy escorts and for rescuing downed crews from the ocean’s surface. This particular Catalina, the A24-11 was being operated by the RAAF as a munitions carrier when she crashed in January 1942. Shortly after takeoff from Kavieng Harbour a wing bomb exploded, and the aircraft went down in approximately 20m of water. Despite another Catalina pilot witnessing the accident and landing to rescue survivors, the 9 crew aboard went down with their plane. About the dive This was my second boat [read more…]

A view of Lissenung Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  No Responses »
May 212012
 
A view of Lissenung Island

About the site As you can see from the photo above and the one below, both of these shots were taken within close vicinity of Lissenung Island. Lissenung is located between the Bismark Sea and South Pacific Ocean, in Papua New Guinea. I was there in April for a week of diving after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011. About the dive The photo up top was taken towards the end of the week. After two morning boat dives out on the deep walls that drop into the Bismarck Sea, I spent a cruisy afternoon diving on the house reef. With poor visibility out deeper, the shallow reef flats had clearer water. I was also tempted into [read more…]

Critter interactions at Lissenung Island

 Ocean diving, Reef diving  2 Responses »
May 072012
 
Critter interactions at Lissenung Island

About the site Lissenung Island is a tiny sandy island in New Ireland, PNG. Located between the Bismarck Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, the waters here see incredible biodiversity. With coastal mangroves nurturing juvenile fish and corals walls down off the continental shelf all within a stone’s throw of each other, the marine life thrives. I visited Lissenung Island Resort in April 2012 for my prize trip after winning the freshwater category of the Underwater Festival 2011. Over 6 diving days there were clouds of fish, huge barracuda, dolphins surfing the bow wave on glassy seas and some great photographic dives on WWII plane wrecks. As the boat winds between sandy tropical islands over 30 degrees water, paradise is [read more…]