Niugini Dive Adventures - Papua New Guinea




	Niugini Dive Adventures Papua New Guinea

Quark Rock (Island) - (Egum Atoll)

Location

This dive can only be made when the sea is calm. Egum Rock is far from the coast, 100 miles north-east of the island of Normanby and lacks safe shelter. The rock rises in the middle of the sea from a depth of 600-700 metres to 30 metres above the surface of the water. Practically round in shape, it has a diameter of about 50 metres. Various species of birds nest in the branches of the trees growing on its surface, including some large birds of prey.

Dive

The boat is anchored on the south side of the island to avoid the current from the north. You can dive all around the rock: the conditions underwater are fairly uniform, a plateau lies at a depth of 6 metres, then the walls, not densely covered with vegetation except for the odd sheltered crevice, drop vertically. Between the plateau and the reef you can see numerous yellow alcyonarians and nudibranchs, lobsters and moray live in the crevices in the walls.

The purpose of this dive is to seek pelagic and passing fish; sightings, however, depend mainly on the intensity of the current which determines and controls the flow of fish around the Rock. If the current is not too strong you can dive from the MTS Discoverer anchored to the south and reach the plateau 6 metres below the surface, move to the northern side and descend along the wall, where shoals of barracuda live. Looking deeper you will make out the silhouettes of grey sharks; it is not unusual on the edge of the drop to meet smaller, white-finned sharks. All around the rocks there are carangids, during the mating period swimming in pairs, the male with dark markings and the female the usual silver colour. Mantas, tuna fish and ocean sharks may arrive at any time out of the blue.

If the current is strong or you want to avoid swimming to the southern side, the best solution is to use a zodiac to reach the diving spot and then drift with the current on one of the two sides of the rock towards the boat at anchor.

Both on the wall and on the plateau at a depth of 6 metres you will spot various types of fish in shoals or alone, dented sweetlips and soldierfish to name but a few. The plateau also has hard coral formations of a lovely green-yellow colour and it is not unusual to see large crabs and yellow hermit-crabs. When the current is strong only the most experienced should dive. No night dives are made at Egum Rock because it is best to moor the MTS Discoverer at Egum atoll after sunset.