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American Morning

'CNN TRAVEL NOW' to Show Underwater Photography From Papua New Guinea

Aired April 27, 2001 - 09:42   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: This week's travel segment continues the adventure through Papua New Guinea, this time from a perspective from underwater.

Our CNN senior photographer Dan Young went scuba diving in Southeast Asia and this country for "CNN TRAVEL NOW."

Are bragging, or are you sharing?

DAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER: Well, I have to brag and do both.

But, Daryn, by far, it's the best diving I've ever done in my life.

KAGAN: Really? You've the chance to dive all over the world.

YOUNG: Yes, this is my fourth dive trip for "TRAVEL NOW."

KAGAN: And what was so special about this one?

YOUNG: It's got everything in the water. The minute that you go underwater, you know that you're in a special world. We dived with gigantic Pacific mantra rays, we dived with huge schools of fish.

KAGAN: I think we have some pictures here.

YOUNG: We dived with the world's largest fish: We dived with a 35-foot whale shark.

KAGAN: What is that?

YOUNG: That's a Pacific manta ray.

Now, that's a green moray eel.

Those are called we discovered a new species of nudibranch. We actually discovered a new species of nudibranch almost on every dive. That's how unchartered waters are there.

KAGAN: Really?

The colors seem so vibrant, too. YOUNG: It's every color in the rainbow.

And we saw turtles. There's a couple swimming.

There's a cuttlefish. That's called a chameleon of the waters because it mimics its surroundings.

KAGAN: There's a human.

YOUNG: There's a diver with a school.

And there's a tiny seahorse. So every size is represented.

KAGAN: To do this, you lived on board a boat.

YOUNG: Yes, it's called a live-aboard boat. It's like a hotel in the water.

KAGAN: And you just go from one place to another cool place.

YOUNG: Yes, the greatest thing is that your scuba gear is ready to go anytime. You can dive anytime that you want to.

KAGAN: At night, too.

YOUNG: At night. You can dive up to five times a day. And the best thing about the live-aboard is that you can get to the extreme areas of Papua New Guinea.

KAGAN: And other than this fantastic diving, what were some of the other great attractions?

YOUNG: Well, there's somebody sleeping -- anyway. We needed our rest.

Anyway, Papua New Guinea was the site of some of the worst fighting in World War II. I don't know if you guys knew that. There are 5,000 wrecks under the water. A lot of them haven't been found.

One wreck that we dived a couple times was a B-17 Blackjack bomber. It crash-landed off a village called Boga Boga in 1943. And after we dived on it, I decided to go to a village to see if there were any eyewitnesses who saw this crash. Sure enough, we found a man named Hobart (ph), who claimed to be 83 years old, who talked about this crash. He witnessed it when, I think, he was 12 years old. He talked about it as if it happened yesterday. It was obviously a special moment in his life.

KAGAN: What an incredible adventure.

And folks, if you're interested, you can hear more on "TRAVEL NOW," which is on Saturday. Let's give those exact times: "CNN TRAVEL NOW," at 6:30 a.m. Eastern, but, probably for most folks, also at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, as well. And also see the CNN Web site, cnn.com.

YOUNG: That's right. KAGAN: Dan, thanks for the great pictures.

YOUNG: Hey, no problem. I can't wait to see it Saturday.

KAGAN: Stop by anytime with those great pictures, Dan.

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