Golden PNG

Julian Cohen · Issue 61, Jul/Aug 2011 · pp. 51–55

Products mentioned: Nikon D7000, Seacam Prelude housing, Tokina 10-17mm lens, Aquatica housing

The dive industry seems to me to be very faddish; dive areas come and go with the fashion. When I first started diving in the mid-nineties, nineteen nineties that is, places such as Sangalaki, Derawan and Sipidan were the most popular places in Asia. There were only two dive centres in Manado, Lembeh Straits area and Raja Ampat wasn’t even discovered yet. Many of the generation of divers before me had cut their diving teeth in Papua New Guinea, which was really the only place to dive in Asia during the seventies and eighties. Places like Walindi, Kavieng and Milne Bay provided the cover photos for the diving magazines. Then people slowly stopped going to PNG as other places were discovered and became more heavily publicised and attractive. For the dive operators in PNG this was not a great thing, but for us as divers it was wonderful as the reefs didn’t get worn and tired from being over…