Magic Passage

(Diver Level: Advanced)

The most popular of the passages and aptly named, Magic Passage bottoms out at approximately 30metres and is about 40metres wide.

On the change of tide this passage becomes a teeming mass of schooling fish – and is one of the few remaining places that divers can experience the sights and sounds of the enormous schools of Caranx Sexfasciatus. These silvery trevallies form an immense living wall around divers as they hang suspended within the passage. These trevallies have a relatively small territory around Madang and if you can keep still for long enough, you will hear the rhythmic drumming of their tails as they swim around you.

Clouds of bannerfish and rainbowfish intermingle with the jacks to give the passage an aura of pulsating colour.

If you are lucky enough to dive Magic Passage on the right tide, you will have your breath taken away as you gaze from one side of the passage, through crystal clear waters, as masses of fish and baitfish swarm you.

The dominant corals of the reef slopes and reef fronts are the Acroporids. These hard corals can be found in a myriad of colours with the most spectacular, and offering the best photo opportunity, the brilliant purple of the Acropora secale.

The range of soft corals on display around the mouth of Magic Passage is extensive – varying in size and colour from the delicate pastel shades of the Sarophytons whose colonies on the reef stretch to more than a meter in diameter, to the vivid blue of the Heliopora coerulea.

A great garden of seas pens grows at seaward mouth of Magic Passage – growing at right angles to the prevailing current as their swaying tentacles filter the changing tidal waters for food.