DIVE LOG DECEMBER 25 ISSUE 415

Walindi. Kimbe Bay’s treasure chest text and photos by Mike Scotland

This is the face of a very friendly Hawksbill Turtle welcoming Pam to the reef. (As long as you give it a tasty bit of their favorite sponge to chew on.)

T here is a curious and wonderful mystery about diving in Walindi and Kimbe Bay. Each day provides great diving; the next day provides more great diving but mostly very different. This happens again and again, day after day After a week, you get to realise how diverse and rich the warm waters of Walindi are. It is a most amazing dive location. Many of the reefs appear to have such varied marine life and dominant corals. It is a paradise for divers and a wonder to explore. These tiny coral Lobsters live inside their hideyholes and use their huge claws as a shield for protection.

So many divers become besotted with Bradford Shoals. It is a very deep sea mount that rises from many hundreds of metres to about 23 m at the twom peaks on its top. The visibility is usually very good due to its remote location. It is famous for schooling Trevally and Chevron Barracuda. At times the schools grow to many hundreds of fish and they seem to delight in creating swirling wagon trains as they slowly surround you in the deep. Photographers love to get below and inside these enveloping fish trains. This takes patience as they fish are easily disturbed gradually veering off into the depper waters. The sea floor is covered with a huge colony of plate corals. You can peer down into the depths toward fifty, sixty metres and beyond. We are told that there are resident schools of Hammerhead sharks down at 100 to 200 to 300 metres depth.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #415 - December’ 25

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