PNG: Loloata and Eastern Fields

Hi everyone,

Just posted some thoughts and a few photos from a month in Papua New Guinea, at Loloata and the Eastern Fields aboard Golden Dawn. Had a bit of bad luck w/ weather, but it was still a great trip.

http://www.tonywublog.com/20080126/trivial-pursuit.html

Cheers,

Tony

nice Tony. Always enjoy reading your blogs. Sad to hear about the sharks though...

Great write-up, Tony, and some outstanding photos!

I've always wanted to do the Eastern Fields, and just haven't ever quite gotten around to it. Your report makes me want to consider it anew!

I've been diving at Loloata several times, though (en route to FeBrina), and consider it one of the most underrated dive spots around - fantastic macro photography 20 minutes from Port Moresby!

another great report Tony..

shame about the weather.

I knew about the welding already though..

Hi everyone,

pakman: Sharks are getting hit everywhere. It's really frustrating, especially to see it happen in such an inaccessible and remote location, where you'd think fishermen wouldn't want to go.

Bruce: I completely agree that the Port Moresby area is under-appreciated. You can literally step off the plane and be in the water within a couple of hours, and there's everything from tiny gobies to great hammerheads swimming around. We had a great hammer cruise by us on one dive, and a whale (not sure what kind) swim overhead on another.

Mike: So you already knew about the difficulty of welding aluminium? Congratulations! You know more useless information than I do. Somehow, I suspected that.

Cheers,

Tony

Thanks Tony, I'm enjoying reading your New Guinea post

There is no doubt the "local" diving from Port Moresby is absolutely underrated !!

No where else can you have the "almost" absolute certainty of sighting the elusive "Rhinopius" in at least one colouration over a few days of diving.

The the worst day at Lion Island ( or any other local 'PNG" dive ) will be still be a delight that reveals treasures and trophies that will make even the most seasoned expedition diver want to go back for more.

I had the great fortune to enjoy the reverse of Tony's trip in the few weeks immediately before him - sloppy local dives ( still great ) and glass at the Eastern fields for 10 days. Without doubt Carl's is the ultimate fish dive, although I think that the soft corals in the cave / swim through are not as splendid as I recall from previous trips - perhaps a sign that we are loving it to death.

I was also disturbed that in a total of 10 diving days there was not a single shark sited by our whole group.

What do we have to do to get the message through to these rogue fisher-people about sustainable catches ???

Mike: So you already knew about the difficulty of welding aluminium? Congratulations! You know more useless information than I do. Somehow, I suspected that.

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

The joys of living on an aluminum liveaboard boat for 5 years..

You can take that as learning about welding.. or the opportunity to learn a lot of useless information..

Great report Tony

I'm off to Loloata in November so your report was very useful.

Loloata was recommended to Martin and I by Pete Mooney when we were in Cairns last year so we thought we would give it a try.

Thanks Pete for the recommendation

Hi everyone,

Leander: My pleasure!

Peter: Heard about your trip. Glad you had good weather out at Eastern Fields. On the trip after mine, Craig got photos of fishing vessels at EF using longlines, nets, spears. No wonder the sharks are gone. Illegal/ overfishing is really pissing me off.

Mike: If you have sufficient useless data in your head, eventually something has to be useful.

Shannon: You'll have a great time. Hopefully the usual healthy aggregation of Rhinopias will be around for you.

Cheers,

Tony

Hey Tony,

Great read and sounds like a quite a journey. I recall you and I talking all about the amazing shark encounters one can have in the Eastern Fields. Sadly, like the rest of SE Asia, where there were sharks, there are sharks no more. I have been doing a ton of field work on shark finning in Raja and PNG. I have heard from many of the fisherman how they had there sights on PNG and the areas you visited. Sadly, for this reason you experience did not surprise me. They are wiping out sharks in that part of the world such that even juveniles less than a meter long don't stand a chance

I will be have more to share on this as my work continues.

-shawn