Steaming ahead through the turquoise waters of the Torres Strait on the National Geographic Orion, it seems hard to imagine that this shallow sea between Australia and New Guinea was once renowned by sailors as the “Strait of Terror.” For the vessels of the colonial era the four-meter swell we faced might well have meant a violent wreckage on the uncharted reefs and an untimely end for those aboard at the hands of the local residents. As naturalist and marine biologist, Cristiana Damiano explained in her morning talk, a healthy population of sharks, including a few species that wouldn’t mind snacking on some shipwreck victims, once teemed in these waters. But shark finning and overfishing have greatly reduced their numbers, and with growing recognition of the value of these top-predators, efforts like the Pristine Seas Project are now attempting to recover their populations. As we learned from Ben Cropp, far more dangerous to castaways in the strait were the local population of head hunters who came to particularly prize the skulls of white men travelling through the area. Nowadays, guests and crew alike could confidently navigate these waters having learned a bit more about the mighty National Geographic Orion and her exquisite engineering in the morning Q & A session about the ship from the Captain, Chief Engineer, and crew leaders.
Beating the challenging seas we arrived in Port Moresby in the early afternoon a few hours ahead of expectations to resupply and make contact with the immigration officials of Papua New Guinea. Produce and protein were carted aboard, while some of the guests enjoyed salsa and yoga classes and others took in the sights of Port Moresby from the deck. As we left port, veteran naturalist Tom Ritchie emceed a competitive round of Tropical Topical Trivia featuring questions drawn from the fabulous talks about the region given by our Global Perspectives Guest Speakers and naturalist team.
After a delicious dinner, our expedition team kept the good times rolling with a game of Liars’ Club in which guests must discern which of the definitions for an obscure word given by the team members is the truth and which are lies. The peals of laughter must have been heard out at sea as even a flying fish made his best attempt to join in the festivities.
