All activities / Scuba Diving / Kimbe Bay
Scuba Diving in Kimbe Bay
A deep tropical bay on the north coast of New Britain in Papua New Guinea's Bismarck Sea, part of the Coral Triangle and a Mission Blue Hope Spot, whose reefs hold more than half the world's coral species across seamounts, walls and shallow patch reefs within easy reach of shore.
Why here
Kimbe Bay sits at the heart of the Coral Triangle, the richest marine region on the planet, and its reefs carry more than half the world's known coral species. The diving is built around bommies and seamounts that rise from very deep water almost to the surface, so a single dive can run from a coral-covered top thick with anthias and fusiliers down a wall into blue water patrolled by barracuda and grey reef sharks. Sites like Bradford Shoals, Inglis Shoal and Susan's Reef are close enough to dive from day boats, and the shallow patch reefs make easy work for newer divers and snorkellers. The bay is a designated Mission Blue Hope Spot and has been a marine research focus for decades, so the reefs are unusually healthy. Beyond the bay itself, liveaboards push out to the Witu Islands and the Fathers Reefs for bigger fish and untouched walls.
Best months
Diving is possible most of the year, with the calmest seas and best visibility broadly from April to November; the bay is sheltered, so conditions are gentle by open-ocean standards. Water is warm year-round and visibility is often excellent over the seamounts. The signature sites are deep-topped pinnacles better suited to divers comfortable at twenty metres and beyond, while the fringing and patch reefs closer to shore work for beginners.
Getting there & around
Reach Kimbe Bay by domestic flight from Port Moresby to Hoskins Airport on New Britain, then about a ninety-minute road transfer to the resort on the shore of the bay. Most divers base at the one resort and dive from its day boats, with the seamount sites twenty to forty minutes out; liveaboards leave from the same jetty for multi-day trips to outer reefs. Internal flights are limited, so book flights and beds together and allow buffer time for connections.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (2)
MV FeBrina
OutfitterMV FeBrina is a twenty-two-metre monohull liveaboard that has worked the reefs of Kimbe Bay and the wider Bismarck Sea since 1991 under skipper and owner Alan Raabe. Home ported at Walindi Plantation Resort, she carries up to twelve divers on itineraries that reach Kimbe Bay, the Witu Islands and the Fathers Reefs, volcanic seamounts that rise from deep water and gather schooling fish. It is set up for photographers, with camera stations and unhurried repeat dives.
Walindi Plantation Resort
OutfitterWalindi Plantation Resort has been family owned and operated on the shore of Kimbe Bay since 1983 and is now run by the third generation of the Benjamin family, who pioneered diving in the bay. Its purpose-built day boats reach more than forty dive sites, most within a short run, taking in coral seamounts, walls and the barracuda schools of a Mission Blue Hope Spot. The resort offers PADI training up to divemaster level and is home port to the liveaboards MV FeBrina and MV Oceania.