Black Magic — Milne Bay | scubaSeason.fun

Planning a trip?

Hotels, dive operators, gear, and how to get here are on the Milne Bay location page.

Overview

Offshore pinnacle off Normanby Island topped with anemone fields and clouded by clouds of glassfish. The slope drops past 40 m and big-fish action — barracuda, jacks, the occasional hammerhead — works the up-current edge.

What you'll see

4 species curated

Anemone fish
year-round
Schooling barracuda
year-round
Scalloped hammerhead
rare
Glassfish
year-round

Sightings evidence

1 record on file

Anemone fish
high confidence
Last confirmed
May 2026
Recent records
130 within 10 km

Sources & methodology

How we summarise this

We aggregate confirmed occurrence records from GBIF and OBIS within a fixed radius of each dive site. Occurrence records confirm presence and reveal seasonality clustering, but they DO NOT measure per-dive probability — there is no eligible-effort denominator. We deliberately do not publish a numeric '% chance of sighting' from this data.

Sources

Global Biodiversity Information Facility — GBIF Secretariat
Ocean Biodiversity Information System — IOC-UNESCO
OBIS-SEAMAP — Duke University Marine Geospatial Ecology Lab / OBIS
iNaturalist — California Academy of Sciences & National Geographic Society
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature
WoRMS — World Register of Marine Species — Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ)
FishBase — FishBase Consortium
Atlas of Living Australia — CSIRO / GBIF Australia
REEF Volunteer Fish Survey — Reef Environmental Education Foundation

Conditions

Month	Water	Visibility	Current
Jan	28–30 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Feb	28–30 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Mar	28–30 °C	20–30 m	moderate
Apr	28–30 °C	20–30 m	moderate
May	27–29 °C	20–30 m	moderate
Jun	27–29 °C	20–30 m	moderate
Jul	27–29 °C	20–30 m	moderate
Aug	27–29 °C	20–30 m	moderate
Sep	27–29 °C	20–30 m	moderate
Oct	27–29 °C	20–30 m	moderate
Nov	28–30 °C	15–25 m	moderate
Dec	28–30 °C	15–25 m	moderate

Season calendar

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Peak season highlighted · current month outlined

Gear for this site

Beyond the basic kit

Reef hook — Standard procedure on the up-current side.

Next step

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Hotels, liveaboards, dive operators, gear recommendations, and travel logistics for the whole region.

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