Milne Bay Province

Milne Bay Province occupies the easternmost tip of Papua New Guinea's mainland and extends through the Louisiade Archipelago and the D'Entrecasteaux Islands. Alotau, on the shores of Milne Bay itself, is the provincial capital. The bay was the site of the Battle of Milne Bay in August and September 1942 — the first Allied land defeat of Japanese forces in the Pacific, a reversal that halted Japan's overland attempt to reach Port Moresby. A memorial and museum at the airstrip site commemorates the battle. Milne Bay Province sits within the Coral Triangle, the roughly triangular area between Indonesia, PNG, and the Philippines that contains the greatest documented marine biodiversity on Earth. The muck diving sites at Milne Bay — silty bays with dense populations of cryptic species: nudibranchs, pygmy seahorses, mimic octopus, frogfish — are internationally known among specialist underwater photographers. Pacific semidiurnal, spring range 1.5 to 2.0 m. Predictions come from Open-Meteo Marine (gridded model, ±45 min / ±0.2–0.3 m).