Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, a little more than 1200 kilometers east of Australia and just over 16,000 kilometers east of France, New Caledonia is a French territory or special collectivity. Part of the Melanesia subregion, which includes the Chesterfield Islands in the Coral Sea, the Belep Archipelago, and the Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia has a land mass of 18,576 square kilometers. Thanks to its location far from the beaten path, its reefs are unspoiled and the marine animals living there have never been exposed to divers.
An Amazing Expedition
Doctor Enric Sala, an award-winning marine ecologist, recently joined a team of divers for an expedition to New Caledonia in hopes of cataloguing marine life in the waters surrounding the island territory. What they discovered was nothing short of amazing.
At Astrolabe Reef, which is a remote coral atoll located northeast of Caledonia, the team encountered sharks, huge groupers, big, bright red sea fans, loads of Napoleon wrasse, and a school of about seventy-five huge bumphead parrotfishes weighing up to 50 kilograms apiece. The presence of the parrotfish told Sala and his team that Astrolabe Reef has not been subject to fishing pressure; these fish are among the first to go when that happens.
Upon exploring the clear blue waters surrounding nearby Huon Island, the divers encountered some incredible animals that are often difficult to find. Giant clams displaying a psychedelic array of iridescent colors, tiny anemone shrimp, stunning black and white sea snakes, and beautiful sea lilies were just some of the creatures they photographed.
Sharks are present in abundance at the sites the team has explored thus far. Grey reef sharks, black tips, silver tips, and white tips join nurse sharks, dominating the reef environment as well as the drop offs, the lagoons, and the stunning coral pinnacles that rise up from the seabed. These important predators are essential for balance here, and the pristine nature of the reefs serve as testament to that balance, with an incredible abundance of soft and hard corals in every color of the rainbow.
The animals here were curious about the divers; each time they entered the water, inquisitive reef sharks approached; after determining that the visitors were neither prey nor predators, they cruised away. Groupers more than a meter long approached curiously too, but without the bored, weary attitude some groupers at heavily dived sites often display.
While there is no diving infrastructure in place, that may change at some point. The governments of Australia and New Caledonia have committed to create an extensive new marine park in the region, and with the help of the Institute de Recherche pour le Development (IRD) of New Caledonia, the Waitt Institute, and National Geographic, who partnered to explore, survey, and gather footage of life in this remote region, they will be able to gain information about areas that are largely unexplored – all in an effort to maintain the underwater environment in pristine fashion. When diving does come to New Caledonia, it’s safe to suppose that all activity will be highly regulated – and that is as it ought to be.