PNG reef fish to grace first stamps in 2012

POST PNG’s Philatelic Bureau will launch 2012’s first stamp issue tomorrow featuring different species of reef fish found in Papua New Guinea waters.
Titled 2012; Reef Fish (assorted) issue, the species were photographed by renowned photographer, diver and writer Rick Tegeler.
In collaboration with Post PNG, Tegeler’s company, Photodive International, hopes to create awareness of threats to the marine environment through the stamp issue.
Tegeler, who has been diving in PNG waters since 1990, said this part of the Coral Triangle was home to over 2,200 fish species.
It is the ‘best of the best’ in world class diving opportunities, said the resident of British Columbia, Canada, who has for the past 40 years, dived, photographed, written about and travelled extensively in the band of tropics around the world, including the Red Sea, the Pacific Islands, Sri Lanka, the Dutch Antilles, Micronesia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, the Philippines, Australia and the Maldives.
“The reasons for this extraordinary congregation of undersea life are as vast and as varied as the range of habitats within PNG, and perhaps might be the impetus for another stamp issue in the future,” he said. 
“It had been a difficult task to select a small, but representative sampling of reef fish found in PNG waters for there were so many beautiful, unusual and iridescent specimens to choose from. 
“Suffice it to say, the creation of this publication involved some very difficult decisions given the array of choices available from PNG’s amazing reef dwellers.”
The Independent Consumer and Competition Commission approved rates for 2012 are:
l    K1.20 x 2 kinds for 50g domestic stamps, and the images used are of the Emperor Angelfish on one stamp and the Yellow-mask Angelfish on the other;
l    K6 for 50g international stamps zone 1, and the image used is that of the Meyer’s Butterflyfish;
l    K6 again for 50g international stamps zone 2, which is the same K6 stamp as zone 1: and
l    K8 for 50g international stamps zone 3. The image featured on this stamp is the Barrier Reef Anemonefish.
The Coral Triangle spans Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, PNG, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste and is home to 75% of all known coral species.