PNG's biological diversity and threats to it
Madang — above and below the surface
Papua New Guinea (PNG) is an amazing place in so many ways, evoking a horde of cliches about the last great frontier, and is a mecca for anthropologists intent on observing the social and cultural traditions of what is arguably the world's most diverse society.
During 1997, I led an Earthwatch expedition to PNG to examine the social behavior of several barracuda species that co-occur on its legendary and pristine coral reefs. I returned twice during 1999 to participate in filming of two television documentaries that focused on my research and on Papua New Guinean barracuda. I went back in early 2003 for an absolutely amazing voyage around much of the Bismarck Archipelago, aboard the liveabord dive vessel FeBrina. For a scientist or natural historian, PNG is pretty much like heaven, and I intend to return there many more times to explore (and do as much as I am able to document and preserve) the nation's underwater wilderness.
I've produced an informational photo gallery that includes a few terrestrial pictures and a lot of underwater pictures from Madang Province and Kimbe Bay (West New Britain Province), two fascinating portions of this extremely diverse nation. The emphasis is primarily on marine natural history and, if anything, highlights just how little we yet know about PNG's reefs and coral reefs in general.
In my quest for up-to-date information on this fascinating island nation, I have found some of the following links to Worldwide Web sites to be invaluable. More and more resources are becoming available all the time and I will do my best to periodically update this page as new Web sites of interest evolve. When I first visited PNG, e-mail was just beginning to slowly make inroads and service was extremely unreliable and intermittent (I ended up with some hefty FAX charges, as a result, while trying to plan an expedition). As is true of the rest of the world, this remote corner of the Pacific is becoming more and more a part of the global communication neighborhood, opening the country up to more people than at any other time in its history.
World-Wide
Web Virtual Library for Papua New Guinea
...a great place to start — the most complete resource available online
The following pages list a lot of information on PNG and include such items as general statistics, economic and geographic data, and much information of practical use to tourists and explorers...
Papua New Guinea's Tourism Promotion Authority
...nice array of information
Travel planner for Papua New Guinea
...from Dive Travel
Travel Information About Papua New Guinea
Rob's Papua New Guinea Links
...have a lot of information collected in one place
University of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
...lots of facts about PNG
ABC Country Book — Papua New Guinea
...no shortage of facts here, either
PNG
...via City Net
Papua New Guinea National Profile of Chemical Management: 1997-2000
...lots more diverse facts here than the title might suggest
Reef and Rainforest — Destination Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
...a page from Above All Travel
This new Papua New Guinea Website from Datec, PNG's first Internet Service Provider, has a lot of great information, background, and pictures on the country
The folks at Datec also bring PNG's national newspaper, the Post Courier online
Air Niugini
...access to Paradise
Papua New Guinea Gossip Newsletter
...lots of interesting tidbits (not really gossip)
The following pages focus on information of particular interest to the traveler...
Lonely Planet — Destination Papua New Guinea
Introduction to Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea for the serious adventure traveler
Papua New Guinea (Condé Nast Traveler)Orbit Travelfile — Papua New Guinea
Photos of Rabaul after the eruption
Embassy of Papua New Guinea in Washington, D.C.
...includes downloadable visa forms
ConsularInformation Sheet — Papua New Guineav...from the US State Department
A Primer on Personal Security for Visitors to Papua New Guineav...from the US State Department
Information on travel health
...including malaria
Travel Health Online
...includes information on Papua New Guinea
PNG is justly famed for both its biodiversity and cultural diversity. Here are a few links that provide a glimpse of PNG's fascinating culture(s) and history...
PNG has over 700 languages spoken by isolated tribes
One Thousand One Papua New Guinean Nights
First Contact
...book review
A bibliography of Melanesian Pidgin English dictionaries, phrase books and study guides
Wanpela Booksv...books focused on WWII and the Pacific
Links relating to WWII wrecks and other Pacific War subjects
The Web also has tremendous archives of World War II information of relevance to Papua New Guinea, such as these pages from January, 1943, April, 1943, and 1944. More information on the Papua/New Guinea campaigns can be found on Australia Remembers 1945-1995,a site that describes the activities of Australians in New Guinea during WW II
PNG's biological diversity and threats to
it
Gaia Forest Conservation Archives
Papua New Guinea Rainforest Campaign News Archives; 1990-1996
Papua New Guinea Forest Destruction Documentation Gallery
Information on logging near Madang
Rainforest herbivores in Madang
Underlying Causes of Deforestation: Papua New Guinea
The Nature of the Human Threat to Papua New Guinea's Biodiversity Endowment
Threats to the health of the oceans
Conservation Areas in Papua New Guinea
...support sustainable production of organically grown gourmet coffees (I don't drink coffee, but I've brought a few of these back with me and was told that they're good...you can order them off the Web now)
Papua New Guinea Divers Association
...a superb coalition of dive operators in PNG that really promotes pro-active environmental efforts (including mooring programs and conduct that lives up to a written code of environmental ethics) -- they are a model for how diving ventures should be run everywhere, and also oversee a fantastic photography contest
DIVErsion — Papua New Guinea
...a tour company's site with lots of good information and a refreshingly unbiased approach to presenting it
Inta-Dive
...dive travel experts who will get you to the Pacific and on to PNG
Asian Diver — Papua New Guinea
Stone Age Diaries
...from Rodale's Scuba Diving
Papua New Guinea
...from Scuba Times
Papua New Guinea — Spotlight
...part of a new dive guide from Asian Diver magazine, written by Bob Halstead, a pioneer of PNG diving and still one of its biggest proponents
Where reef and rainforest meet
Michael McFadyen's Overseas Dive Sites — Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea — A Journey In Time
Diving in Papua New Guinea
...another site by the same name
Stefan's trip reports — Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
...from Carl Roessler
The Winner — And Still Champion
...Carl Roessler visits PNG's Coral Sea (Eastern Fields)
Explore Papua New Guinea Underwater
Black Jack's Last Mission
...the famous B-17 wreck located off Boga Boga, Cape Vogel
Loloata Island Resort
...dive resort near Port Moresby
Somebody's underwater photos from a trip on the Star Dancer
Reef and Rainforest...information on liveaboards and dive resorts
Field Guide to Anemonefishes and Their Host Sea Anemones
...an extremely informative electronci version of a book by Daphne Fautin and Indo-Pacific fish authority Gerald R. Allen. Madang Lagoon, on PNG's northeast coast, is home to nine anemonefish species — a greater diversity than you'll find anywhere else on Earth
Three Routes Papua New Guinea SCUBA Diving
...dive operator database
MV Golden Dawn
...liveaboard (by Julianne Ziefle)
MV Golden Dawn
...liveaboard (owner's site)
MV Chertan
...liveaboard in Milne Bay Province
Paradise Sport
...Mike Ball's new liveaboard
Some of my photographs from the Madang area
Madang Diving
...a great new site with information about diving the Madang area
Malolo Plantation Lodge
...a bit further up the coast, this outfit offers beautiful lodgings and views and diving with nitrox and rebreathers!
Blue Sea Charters
...these people now run a liveaboard, MV Moonlighting, based in Madang
Madang Diving
...with a more recent dive travelogue, both from Michael McFadyen
Madang area diving — from a recent trip by Carl Roessler
The Bomber Reef
...about the wreck of a B-25 Mitchell USAAF bomber that's submerged in Madang Lagoon
Madang
...by Scuba Safaris
Madang: Crossroads at the Crossroad
A few photos from Madang
Clif Haugen, my trusty and eminently capable research assistant in Madang, has his own web pages, including a bit about the trip (and much more!)
Some of my photographs from Kimbe Bay
My map of Kimbe Bay
The Nature Conservancy at Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea
...this is the research and educational facility run jointly by the European Union, The Nature Conservancy, Oceanica, Walindi Plantation, and others
The Nature Conservancy is becoming more and more active in the South Pacific
...Mahonia na Dari, the facility on Kimbe Bay, is an important element of that effort
An Opening Act for the Conservancy in Papua New Guinea
Walindi Plantation Resort
...excellent web pages, including great site descriptions
MV FeBrina
...like the Walindi site, this one has great site descriptions and photos by Tammy Peluso and others
DIVErsion — Walindi Plantation
Walindi and Kimbe Bay
Where reef and rainforest meet
Papua New Guinea: Ahh! Rapture on a Reef
Heaven on Earth
...by Michael Aw
Peter Hughes — Papua New Guinea
I Hate Diving In New Guinea
...yeah, right...
Walindi and Febrina
...from Scuba Safaris
Aquatic Encounters — Papua New Guinea
PNG, 1997 — Jim Kasson's underwater photographs
...from Kimbe Bay
Smithsonian Institution Global Volcanism Program — Volcanoes of New Britain
Research affiliation information
Embassy of Papua New Guinea in Washington, D.C.
...a new site that (very handily) includes downloadable visa forms
