Alotau was our port of embarcation for all the exploration we did in the waters of Milne Bay and beyond. The underwater sea life, corals and fish, were virtually untouched and extremely abundant. At and around a place we called Observation Point we found at least 3 new species of fish.

New species Trichonotus halstead (see right) was named after Bob Halstead, the captain of the M/V Telita, and described and published in Environmental Biology of Fishes. Another possible new Trichonotus species, not yet described, is being studied at Observation Point.

New species Hoplolatilus pohle (see left) was describe by a team from the University of Hawai (See paper) and named after me. I discovered this new species on a deep (230 foot) exploratory dive on "Pohle's reef" near Observation point.

WWII airplane wrecks, a variety of small villages, unexplored caves and caverns, unmapped reefs, underwater sulfor fumerolas and more, made this entire area of Papua New Guinea a great place to explore.

Underwater wreck of USA WWII B-17 Bomber.

Trek to cave of skulls.	Inside "Cave of Skulls".
Typical non-missionary seaside village.	Home on stilts.
Where pigs are worth more than gold.	Mary befriending villagers.
National Georgraphic ROV on deck.	Native looking down on ROV during test.

Sunset in Milne Bay.

Back to Home.

Back to Underwater years.

Back to PNG