Diving Papua New Guinea: Tawali Dive Sites Overview
Tawali Explorer
Apart from the house reef, the dive sites accessible from Tawali can be separated into two basic groups – the coastal sites which are accessible by smaller boats and the offshore sites that require the larger Tawali Explorer.
Both the coastal & offshore sites offer some great diving, but to generalize…
The coastal sites tend to be more hard coral and critter dives, whereas the offshore sites are classic reef dives with sea mounts rising up out of deep water.
Either way, you cannot really go wrong…
Tawali Dive Sites: Tawali House Reef
The House Reef stretches from inside the bay on the southern side of the headland, round the headland itself and into the northern bay. You could spend hours just grazing it as there is a lot to see, but if nothing else you must do one dusk dive right at the end of the jetty, because there is a very nice coral head that hosts numerous mandarin fish.
Mandarin Fish on the House Reef
Mandarin fish are small, superbly colored & photogenic fish that live in coral heads & rubble and only emerge at dusk to mate. The mating process is quite fascinating to watch, if rather difficult to photograph because of the fading light and the speed at which it occurs.
To make things worse, if you try to improve the lighting by turning your torch on, all bets are off and the mating is over for the day!
Presumably because one of the pair does not like sex with the lights on…
Once you have watched the process a few times it’s quite easy to tell when a pair of mandarins are about to mate, because their body language changes and they start to cuddle up before suddenly rising up into the water column and simultaneously releasing their eggs & sperm.
A long macro lens is needed to capture the two fish together, but finding & focusing on them in the low light is not easy and that coral head almost became a home from home by the time I captured an image that I was happy with!
Tawali Coastal Dive Sites: Lauadi – Dinah’s Beach
Yellow Frogfish at Dinah's Beach
Dinah’s Beach is a quite famous muck diving/critter site located right in front of the village of Lauadi, further west along the coast from Tawali. I did several dives there and was so impressed with the diversity that I have written a dedicated page on the site.
But let me wet your appetite with a brief description…
The site is in a sheltered bay and consists of a black volcanic sand beach, which slopes off at an angle of about 30 degrees into the depths. It’s rare to go any deeper than about 12-15m at Dinah’s, because all the critters are usually found in less than 10m.
On my dives there I saw a superb orangutan crab, a quite incredible decorator crab, some beautiful coleman & harlequin shrimps, mantis shrimps, a moray eel cleaning station, cockatoo waspfish & colorful frogfish and I am very sure there was more to see if I had time!
Tawali Coastal Dive Sites: Lauadi – Deacon’s Reef
Deacon's Reef
Deacon’s Reef is one of my favorite dive sites in all of PNG, it’s a coastal reef on the headland that protects the bay where the village of Lauadi is located.
It’s location on the headland means that is is exposed to the strong & nutrient rich coastal currents which nourish all the rich gorgonian fans & hard corals to the found there.
Some of those fans are huge and growing in such shallow water, close to the overhanging rainforest that grow right to the waters edge creates a fantastic & very photogenic location.
Deacon’s Reef really is quite special and I have also written a dedicated page for the site
Tawali Coastal Dive Sites: Wahoo Point
Elephant Ear Sponges at Wahoo Point
Like Deacon’s Reef, Wahoo Point is a dive that I have done several times before and one that really sticks in my mind, because of the huge elephant ear sponges to be found there which are quite unlike anything I have before.
Like many of the coastal reefs on the north coast, Wahoo is a site where there is a good chance to see the “big dogs” of the sea and there are regular sightings of mobula & manta rays, hammerhead & tiger sharks, minke whales & whale sharks.
But on the two dives of trip I did there the big dogs could have been right behind me and I would not have known as I was fixated on capturing images of the sponges.
Elephant Ear Sponges & Diver
The sponges are a slope that goes down to about 18m before dropping off to about 60m.
What that means is that you are shooting up the slope, usually with the sun in the frame and making it difficult to balance the light.
I managed to get the lighting right, plus I had a very cooperative dive guide who doubled up as my model and provided some very nice perspective so that the size of the elephant ear sponges are revealed in the images.
A great site – but keep one eye over your shoulder on the look-out for those big dogs…
Tawali Coastal Dive Sites: The Coral Gardens
The Coral Gardens
As the name suggests, the Coral Garden, is a superb hard coral garden which is located about 15 minutes north of Tawali.
The coral growth is in the shallow area, close to the over-hanging rainforest, at an average depth of about 6-8m
The hard corals are in excellent condition and and cover an extensive area.
Being so close to the surface makes the location very photogenic, because the strong sunlight creates interesting lighting patterns and brings the whole area to life.
Rhinopias at the Coral Gardens
I dived here a couple of times and really enjoyed the experience, only venturing out from the shallow area onto the drop-off on the second dive when it was confirmed that a red Rhinopias was to be found down at 22m.
Rhinopias are one of those creatures that underwater photographers have to photograph no matter how many images they may already have…
So on the second dive I followed the dive guide down to the ledge at 22m where sure enough the Rhinopias was waiting.
I was rewarded for my commitment to the cause, because while I was busy shooting images of the Rhinopias the dive guide found a nicely positioned crocodile fish for me!
Tawali Offshore Dive Sites: Crinoid City
Rhinopias & Diver at Crinoid City
Crinoid City is a coral mound that rises up from about 120 feet and, as the name would suggest, is host to a wide variety of crinoids.
Where there are a lot of crinoids, it’s reasonable to expect there may be a Rhinopias or two, because their game plan is to pretend to be a crinoid, while they wait to ambush attack an unsuspecting passer-by!
Sure enough there where at least two Rhinopias at Crinoid City.
One, a quite large green example, had positioned himself superbly on top of some pink hard coral which set off it’s coloration very nicely.
How nice & how unusual to get a fish to cooperate…
The second Rhinopias, which is apparently the highly sought after yellow variation, was unfortunately nowhere to be found.
Crinoid City is also home to a variety of black coral trees which can be found on the front slope of the reef and just round from that area there are large schools of fusiliers, anthias & jacks making the site a great spot for wide-angle photography.
Tawali Offshore Dive Sites: Little China
Anemona at Little China
Little China is a pinnacle that rises up from the surrounding depths of about 50m to just 6m below the surface and is aptly named because of the sheer profusion of marine life to be found there.
It’s an impressive site, and is apparently typical of 30+ similar sites in the same general area – but they will have to be explored on another trip some time in the future….
The most intense fish life is to be found at the front face of the site where there are large of schools jacks & trevally circling in the blue and on the south slope there are some superb soft coral gardens that are bursting with marine life!
Tawali Offshore Dive Sites: Cobb’s Cliff
Cobbs Cliff is another of the offshore reefs that rises up from the surrounding deep waters. The top of the reef is at about 6m and on one side there is a steep drop off to 50m from about 6m, while on the other side there is a ridge which drops down gently to a sandy lagoon in about 18m.
The site is reportedly visited regularly by pelagics such as mantas and hammerheads, but I did not see them on my two dives there, but I did see a lot of smaller stuff like leaf scorpion fish and elegant fire gobies.
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