THE WILDLIFE OF LOLOATA ISLAND

We had barely stepped off the boat and already we were having a wildlife experience. Blocking our pathway were two giant grey coloured birds with blood red eyes and striking white crowns on their heads. These were Victoria crown pigeons, the world’s largest pigeon species, about the size of a turkey, and they were strutting around the reception! This was just the start of a wonderful week of wildlife encounters on Loloata Island .
    Loloata Island is a lovely little island located off Papua New Guinea ’s capital of Port Moresby , only thirty minutes from the airport. Situated on the northern end of the island is a very secluded resort established over thirty years ago by Australian expat Dik Knight. Loloata Island Resort has twenty-three specious cabins located around the mangrove shore line and facilities include a conference centre, bar, shop, large dining area and dive centre.
    As mentioned in the introduction, Loloata Island is a wildlife experience, beside the giant pigeons, guests will also see hundreds of wallabies bounding around the resort, bread up from two of these marsupials introduced to the island many years ago. During our week on the island we also saw frogs, sea birds, butterflies, parrots and even a few sea snakes, that come ashore at night but are easily avoided as they are sluggish on land. But the main wildlife attractions at Loloata Island are found in the waters surrounding the island, as the resort offers some of the best diving and snorkelling to be found in PNG.
    Papua New Guinea is well known as an adventure diving destination, but few realise that some of its best diving is found right off Port Moresby . Surrounding Loloata Island are countless coral reefs that are packed with marine life. While you can snorkel and dive around Loloata Island itself, nearby Lion Island is a more popular spot for divers looking for small and unusual creatures.
    On the sand and in the sea grass beds at Lion Island divers will find cuttlefish, octopus, shrimps, lionfish, crabs, anemones and colourful sea slugs called nudibranchs. Several ships have been scuttled around Lion Island for divers to explore, all of which are now covered in colourful corals and populated by a wide range of reef fish and invertebrate species.
    A number of other ships have also been scuttled in the waters off Loloata Island , including two very popular shipwrecks off Horseshoe Reef. The 25m long MV Pai II was a prawn trawler that is now a haven for marine life. Exploring this ship, which rests in 27m of water, we found lionfish, batfish, gropers and a sleepy tasselled wobbegong shark resting on the deck. The coral growths on this ship are just incredible, transforming the steel hull into a tapestry of amazing colours.
    Another scuttled ship nearby is the Pacific Gas, a 65m long gas tanker that now sits in 15m to 45m. This ship is also decorated by wonderful corals and populated by a range of reef fish and pelagic fish, however its best feature is only revealed at night. Descending on the ship at night was a creepy experience, but it got even creepier after we landed on the bow and turned off our torches. However, we weren’t in complete darkness as we could see an eerie glow coming from a hatch. Peering into the hatch we could see hundreds of flickering green lights – flashlight fish!
    These tiny fish have luminous organs that they can switch on and off that assists them to attract prey. We sat mesmerised for five minutes as a stream of flashlight fish emerged from the hatch and spread across the ship, lighting it up like a Christmas tree. A truly amazing experience.
    Our wildlife experienced continued on the pretty reefs found off Loloata Island . Suzie’s Bommie is one of the most popular dive sites in the area and is a tower of coral rising from 40m. Coloured by wonderful corals, this bommie is populated by a diverse range of reef fish, while on top swarm schools of trevally, fusiliers and very photogenic diagonal-banded sweetlips.
    On other reefs in the area we saw white tip reef sharks, large Maori wrasse, moray eels, eagle rays and a wide variety of reef fish and invertebrate species. One of our favourite dive sites was a small clump of reef called Lillian’s Patch. The resident reef fish were wonderful to watch, including a variety of anemonefish, but the highlight was a colony of pygmy sea horses. Living in sea fans, and highly camouflaged, these tiny sea horses are barely 1cm tall and extremely difficult to find without the help of a great dive guide. Fortunately Loloata Island Resort has four wonderful dive guides in Franco, Roy , Kity and Henry.
    These dive guides were put to very good use at a number of dive sites as they found us sea snakes, cuttlefish, leopard sharks, stonefish, octopus, moray eels and numerous other interesting subjects to photograph. The most exciting creature they showed us was a lacy scorpionfish at Baldwin ’s Bommie, a very rare and highly prized photographic subject. Kity pointed out the brilliantly camouflaged fish sitting on top of the bommie, and we were very pleased he did as we would have never found it ourselves.
    Our most impressive wildlife encounter at Loloata Island occurred on our last day at a dive site called The Finger. This site is known as a ‘sharky area’ as it is washed by strong currents. We found the current to be very strong on one side of the reef, but fortunately the other side wasn’t too bad, so we got to explore a lovely coral wall. Drifting along the wall we found reef sharks, eagle rays, trevally and mackerel. But the highlight was when a shark ray, a very rare creature that has the head of a ray and body of a shark, swam by us. We surfaced elated to have seen this rare ray off Port Moresby , only to discover that we had missed seeing two hammerhead sharks that had buzzed around the other divers!
    The menagerie of wildlife found above and below the water at Loloata Island makes this resort off Port Moresby a very special place.

For more information visit Loloata Island Resort

Article appeared in Air Nuigini Paradise Magazine September 2011