Liveaboard Diving in Papua New Guinea, Coral Triangle megafauna, WWII wrecks and reefs with “more fish than water”

Liveaboard Diving At The Birthplace Of Muck Diving And Dive With Mantas and Hammerheads

Liveaboard Diving in Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea liveaboard diving is about an underwater photographer’s paradise at the birthplace of muck diving, to World War II wrecks of aircraft, ships and submarines, to diverse marine life that includes nudibranchs and macro life, dugongs, manta rays and hammerhead sharks.

Liveaboard diving Papua New Guinea is like diving in an amazing aquarium, with great marine life, World War II wrecks and the chance to muck dive where muck diving was invented.

Marine Life and Sharks in Papua New Guinea

Marine life seen in Papua New Guinea include plenty of turtles, dugongs, large shoals of barracuda, cuttlefish, clownfish, grouper, lionfish, moray eels, garden eels, plenty of health soft and hard corals with the usual reef fish in abundance.

Papua New Guinea sharks species include blacktip reef sharks, grey reef sharks, nurse sharks, oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks, silky sharks, whale sharks and whitetip reef sharks.

You may also see rays, such as blue spotted stingrays, manta rays, spotted eagle rays and other sting rays.

In addition to plenty of fish and dugong, you may also see dolphins, blue whales, humpback whales, orca, pilot whales and sperm whales.

Muck Diving Papua New Guinea Milne Bay

When muck diving Papua New Guinea’s Milne Bay you can find many muck critters such as:

1. Octopus.
2. Shrimp, including Emperor shrimp, Coleman shrimp, Harlequin Shrimp, mantis shrimp, Ocellanted Tozeuma shrimp, Anker’s whip coral shrimp, dragon shrimp and mushroom coral shrimp.
3. Crabs, including Orangutan Crab, mosaic boxer crab and soft coral crabs.
4. Many types and colours of nudibranchs.
5. Frogfish, including painted frogfish, freckled frogfish and warty frogfish.
6. Mandarin fish.
7. Pygmy lionfish.
8. Seahorses.
9. Cockatoo waspfish.
10. Ghost pipefish.
11. Lobsters, including hairy squat lobster.
12. Flatworms.
13. Spanish dancers.

In case you’ve not heard the expression “Muck Diving“, muck diving is defined as diving on a muddy, sandy or silty bottom in search of tiny creatures, or ‘muck critters‘. Muck diving is all about taking it really slowly and looking carefully, as many of these creatures are tiny and can be missed very easily.

If you want convincing of how much fun this can be and how it becomes an underwater photographers dream, please watch this video of the array of muck critters found in Papua New Guinea.

Best Time To Papua New Guinea

Scuba diving Papua New Guinea is year-round, but conditions will be different depending on the time of year you visit. If you are looking to dive with manta rays in Papua New Guinea, the best time to visit is in September.

How To Get To Papua New Guinea Liveaboards

To get to Papua New Guinea, you need to fly to Port Moresby International Airport, also known as Jacksons International Airport, which is just outside Port Moresby.

Dive World War II Wrecks Of Papua New Guinea

Dive World War II wrecks of Papua New Guinea that include the Backjack, which is a World War II B-17 aircraft wreck sitting on the seabed at 48 metres (157 feet) depth.