New Ireland & Kavieng · Papua New Guinea · Coral garden · Sand slope · Muck & macro
Ral Island
Frogfish, seahorses and the odd mimic octopus on the sandy slope west of the island
Area photo: Micha Baum · CC BY-SA 4.0
Ral Island is a tiny islet off Kavieng ringed by a coral garden, with a sandy slope on its western side. There is no current and the dive stays shallow, so it serves as an easy last dive of the day, with a choice between a lap of the coral garden and a hunt for small critters on the sand.
Where it is and how deep
2.6106° S, 150.7092° EApproximate position — the dashed circle shows where the site lies; your operator's briefing has the mooring.
The dive
With no currents and a maximum of 15 m, the dive is gentle and suits the third dive of the day or the dive after the deep plane wreck at Deep Pete. One option circles the coral garden that surrounds the island, between 5 and 15 m.
The other option is the sandy slope to the west of the island, a search for decorator crabs, seahorses, pipefish, nudibranchs, flatworms and frogfish, and now and then a mimic octopus.
Marine life and season
- Nudibranchs
- Frogfish
- Octopus & cuttlefish
- Macro critters
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fair | Fair | Fair | Fair | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Fair | Fair |
Season follows New Ireland & Kavieng: The New Hanover trips run from May to October; rain from late December to March and North Pacific swell from November to April mark the rest of the year.
Sources
- Dive Sites | Lissenung Island Resort — Lissenung Island Resort
- OpenStreetMap geocoding — OpenStreetMap
More dive sites in New Ireland & Kavieng
Channel & pass
Eagle rays and grey reef sharks crowding the channel as the tide floods in
Wall
A coral slope that suddenly turns into a sheer drop out of sight
Wreck
A wartime Japanese floatplane ringed by schooling batfish and snapper
Pinnacle
An isolated ocean ridge whose point pulls in barracuda and jacks
A Second World War bomber that ditched after a raid on Kavieng
Similar dives elsewhere
The strait's only white-sand muck site, with coral in the shallows
Debris slope from 3 to 18 m, dived for frogfish and nudibranchs
An old truck-tyre reef grown over with coral, full of critters
Mimic and blue-ringed octopus over Anilao's best-known muck slope