Something is killing the ocean off New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea. Nobody knows what.

Since December 2025, residents along the remote Boluminski Highway coast have watched thousands of sea creatures wash ashore — fish with swollen, popping eyes, white-filmed corneas, and burnt skin. A five-day community survey in Manggai Village documented 3,451 dead organisms across more than 15 species. The reefs smell acidic.

The water is making people sick, too. At least 750 villagers have reported skin welts, rashes, chest pains, and respiratory symptoms after wading in the sea or eating fish. Kafkaf village residents describe severe itching and burning on contact with the water. Children and mothers are among the hardest hit.

PNG fisheries minister Jelta Wong has issued a health warning advising residents to stop eating or catching fish until the cause is identified — a devastating order for communities whose protein and income depend almost entirely on the ocean. “Families can no longer rely on the ocean for food,” community leader Martha Piwas told Oceanographic Magazine.

Local conservation group Ailan Awareness, led by founder John Aini, has been driving the documentation effort in the absence of a large-scale government response. An international team of marine scientists and ecotoxicologists has now mobilized to investigate. Minister Wong estimated results could take “a week or two.”

Four months in, the cause remains entirely unknown. Industrial contamination, algal bloom, volcanic activity — all are possibilities. None are confirmed.

Sources

• Mystery fish deaths in Papua New Guinea prompt health warning — Phys.org
• Mystery marine die-off triggers health crisis in Papua New Guinea — Oceanographic Magazine
• Unknown marine contamination event sickens hundreds and kills thousands of fish in Papua New Guinea — Pressenza
• Wong warns against fishing, eating fish in New Ireland — The National