Dive Palau

Micronesia (in the western Pacific) may be known amongst divers primarily for the World's premier wreck diving destination (for Truk lagoon) but island hopping divers have discovered that the lesser known islands, in particular Palau, has everything that Truk has to offer - and then some!

Given the diversity of diving found in Palau this string of rock islands should be in the top ten on every divers wish list of places to visit.

In Palau there are World War II wrecks just like Truk, but also there are spectacular walls (some rated conservatively in the World's Top Ten dives). There are caves but, perhaps most unusual of all, is a stunning and unique ecosystem in a landlocked marine lake that boasts millions upon millions of jellyfish!

Jellyfish Soup!

One of the many climaxes of any trip to Palau is a fun side trip to Jellyfish Lake. This is a landlocked marine lake with 1.6 million jellyfish in (don't ask me who counted them)! Jellyfish Lake is an amazing and unusual marine ecosystem linked to the sea by underground channels and surrounded on all sides by dense tropical rainforest. Fortunately, the jellyfish are not dangerous, as they have lost their sting, probably through having no natural predators. They live in symbiosis with algae and migrate with the sunlight required for photosynthesis. Apart from the jellyfish there are no other creatures in the lake (save for some anemones and small mangrove fish). No crocodiles anyway!

A short boat trip from Korror is required to reach the particular island with Jellyfish lake in its centre. After a gruelling hike through the eerie silence of tropical rainforest you reach the edge of lake. You put your mask, fins and snorkel on and enter through mangrove channels where mature root systems provide a spectacular backdrop. The bottom of the channel is carpeted in brown decaying material which must be leaf vegetation that dropped in; making, no doubt, the richest peat fertiliser in the World should you bag it up and take it home!

The channel opens out to green open water, very brackish, and you soon find yourself surrounded by the pulsating aureoles of jellyfish, so many in fact that they make you feel like you are in jellyfish soup. The jellyfish range from 1-20cm in diameter, softly stroking your skin as you brush up against them. They go about their jellyfish business oblivious of your presence.

Chandelier cave

Another great Palau site is nestled in the Rock Islands and called Chandelier cave, which is a huge cave system under one of the islands close to Korror harbour. This system extends a couple of hundred metres under the island. It is so named because of the stalactite formations that hang like chandeliers from the roof of the cave.

From the entrance there is an inky blackness as you peer inside and, as you cautiously enter, you are enveloped in this total darkness. This can be disorienting initially, even when you turn your light on.

There are several large chambers to explore and it is eerie to hang in the vast crystal clear visibility with the hanging rock formations piercing the occasional air pocket. Various side chambers have air pockets too, which are large enough to surface in.

These air spaces also have stalactite like formations and hot, humid air. The air chambers reverberate as you hold conversations and echo with the splish-splash of fresh water dripping from the ceiling, presumably having soaked all the way through the rock from the rainforest above. The cave is largely devoid of life though, although there are a few fish that inhabit the twilight world inside.

There is tremendous visibility but as you go deeper the main chamber opens out and you can lose sight of the walls. Although totally black inside it is impossible to get lost. As your eyes adjust to the low light you realise that there a dim light from the entrance is visible from all parts, and all secondary chambers are dead ends which you can soon backtrack from.

The Walls

The variety and breadth of Palau diving is incredible. World class, classic sheer walls encrusted with Technicolor soft corals and sponges plunge to 2000'. Sea whips with crinoids are abundant and big pelagics cruise the drop-offs when the current is running. It is not just the reefs that make this location special however; in the same day (and sometimes on the same dive) you can do a rollercoaster drift dive, a wreck dive, and a cave dive! There's something for everyone, and enough spectacle to whet even the most jaded appetite.

My first suspicions that Palau diving might be hard work, were aroused when I noticed that the local dive shops sold an item of equipment I had never seen before - a sort of Buddyline but with a hook on one end. This hook is used to anchor you to the reef, the other end you clip to yourself so you can remain in place! In short, extreme currents mean Palau diving is not for novices. A safety sausage is a must to alert the boat when you surface otherwise - Papua New Guinea next stop! But, even though on all the sites around the outer reef in Palau you can get some massive currents, the water movement does bring in the marine life.

One site, Blue Corner, is widely acknowledged as being in the World's top ten dives. The favourite term to describe this site is sensory overload. Blue Corner is a different dive every time you do it and, when the current is running, you really see some action. The sharks are wall-to-wall. Blue tips, White tips, and Greys mostly, but other people I spoke to have seen Tiger sharks too. Unfortunately, from the photographic point of view, they hang back off the reef making an occasional dart in to pick up a snack from one of the many shoals of Jacks hugging the reef. However, should you be in that shoal then they barge past oblivious to your presence - it can be quite a thought provoking experience! But you soon come to ignore the sharks and focus on the other large pelagics including the real king of the reef, the dogtooth Tuna.

Although most divers go to Palau for the walls there are some great wrecks here too. In W.W.II Palau had plenty of action as part of the allied 'Desecrate 1' offensive. This was the operation to recapture the islands from the Japanese and the majority of ships sunk here went down in one day (the 31st March 1944). Whilst not as renown as nearby Truk lagoon for wrecks, Palau has its fair share and indeed it could be argued that the wrecks here are in better shape than those in Truk are.

The wrecks are seldom dived, most are in lagoons and the day boats head straight out over them to the outer reefs. The wrecks are therefore largely untouched with plenty of W.W.II memorabilia lying around. Like most wrecks stuff gets shifted around by divers wanting to make a picture whilst holding a machine gun or sitting on a toilet, which is very disappointing but otherwise they are virgin.

The majority of Palau wrecks are in amongst the Rock Islands and well sheltered from the currents, but visibility is generally not as good as Truk. Typically the Vis is 10'-30' (on a good day). In all other respects Palauan wreck diving equals Truk wreck diving. The abundance of marine growth that has tamed these man made reefs over the fifty years since they sunk is identical in both locations. The softening of the lines - from stanchions and rigging into abstract coral colonies is the same. The torpedo damage, ripping great sections out of the hulls of these vessels, links their fate inextricably to the War in the rest of the Pacific.

In between dives lunch is often spent on one of the islands where white sand beaches the consistency of damp talcum powder back on to tropical rain forest. The guides can lead you to interesting landlocked attractions from WWII too, like zero fighters that didn't quite make the runway, crashed and now are swallowed up by the jungle. One such plane is mere yards from the track but totally invisible (unless you know it is there).

The Japanese are invading these islands again. Some might find their synchronised entries amusing and their formation underwater swimming perhaps a little too regimented for the average divers taste! Some groups dive with SMB's which is not usual in these tropical locations, but it is safe.

About Palau

Micronesia is in the Western Pacific on the equator just to the side of the International Date Line. Palau is actually a collection of hundreds of small islands, often called the Rock islands. These are limestone outcrops that mushroom out of the emerald sea like mini 'sugar loaf' mountains. They are covered with dense tropical rainforest (except for the undercut base, which is eroded between high and low tides).

Politically, Palau is a US trust area (which means that they get bank-rolled in return for the option to site military bases). The budget in 1995 was $200 million U.S. which, for a population of only 15,000 is quite astounding! It works out at $13,000 each person!

However, we are still talking 'Third World' here and regular power cuts are still a feature of island life. There is very little industry or agriculture with the main cash crop on one island being Marijuana!

Each inhabited island, some with only 25 people, has its own legislature (and President) so it sometimes seems that the budget is only generating bureaucracy as the majority of Palauans work for the State. Unemployment is low; those islanders who don't have a job can make an easy living from fishing. Marine life is abundant and dynamite fishing has fortunately not caught on here (dynamite may still cheaper than nets but few Palauans are that ambitious).

The majority of people live on Korror, the main island, which is connected by long open bridges to several other islands. It is common to see cars in the water first thing in the morning after drunken drivers have run off the bridges the night before! Hence, there is a 12-4 am curfew to tackle the drunkenness problem. The Palauans are well educated however, with schools being run by the churches. The main language is Palauan, with English and Japanese also widely spoken.

How To Dive Palau

There are both liveaboard and land based diving operations here. Palau has developed quickly and its diving industry now has an infrastructure far more advanced than the other islands. Japanese tourism bypassed Truk altogether and they took their hotels instead to Palau with the flagship Palau Pacific set in its own security patrolled grounds The diving industry has been fuelled by the Japanese influence and that popularity is no doubt due to the fact that Palau is only 800 miles south-west of Guam (which is the nearest warm water diving accessible to Japan, and the place where many Japanese learn to dive).

The best diving is on the outer reef and therefore being shore based means a long journey of up to one and a half hours weaving through the rock islands. Each morning the day-boats pick up from the hotels, vying for a mooring like rival taxi firms. The Palauans are proud boat owners and whoever it is who has the Yamaha franchise in this part of the world is making money as their fibre glass dories all have two 100 h.p. Yamaha's each! Such power on such small boats makes the journey to the reef hair-raising (but entertaining) as the boats thread their way through myriad Robinson Crusoe islands at high speed to beat the competition to the best sites.

The boats each take six divers and the style is therefore, by necessity, two tank diving. Usually, only local guides are employed and communication involves a lot of pointing and hand signals - but it has to be said that they get the job done even if safety is not a high priority. Don't expect dive briefings, dive plans, or being buddied up if you are on your own. The guides do not have the same notion of safe diving practices as the rest of us. For instance, although legally required, none of the day boats have radios (the regulations are not enforced).

Surprisingly, as few as only 100 people work in the Palauan diving industry. You would not think so when you see the congestion at some of the diving hot spots. The inevitable conclusion is that further expansion is bound to happen and in ten years time Palau will go the way of other popular sites world-wide, so perhaps you should get there whilst it is still unspoilt?

The dive guides are real characters and a complete antidote to regimented diving. They are mildly stoned out of their heads chewing Betel nut (a mild narcotic with alkaloids, a hit similar to cocaine). The disgusting thing about this local habit is that the islanders chew crushed coral and tobacco with the Betel nut, which not only stains their teeth bright red, when they spit it out the foul mixture with saliva leaves stains all over every patch of concrete on every island. It is an endemic practice in the region and indulged in my all levels of Micronesian society, men, women and children!

However, even if the habits and facilities in Palau are basic the diving is stupendous. Palau has it all; wrecks, drop-offs, large pelagics, and hard and soft corals. In fact if you were to ask me if I had only one destination to visit in Micronesia I would recommend Palau ahead of Truk.

Without doubt the best way to see and dive the islands is on a liveaboard. Both the Aggressor fleet and Peter Hughes have large vessels operating these waters but I would recommend a smaller boat, The Ocean Hunter, which, by virtue of its size could reach the parts that the bigger boats could not, allowing direct entries onto the reef.

The Ocean Hunter is a 60' motor-sailer sumptuously equipped with full US coast guard specification safety equipment. It caters for the American markets so you never have to lift your own tank. The skipper and divemaster are Israelis, so those of you familiar with Red Sea Israeli run liveaboards will feel right at home.

With a liveaboard you avoid all the congestion at the popular sites. You have already done your first and second dive by the time the day-boats appear and, with a liveaboard, you can easily notch up six dives a day! Liveaboards also tend to give you a more balanced itinerary, deliberately covering all the best sites in the one-week tour.

A jaded appetite will be rejuvenated by the different species here. Water temperature is 82-85 year round so you can emulate one famous group of Italians who visit every year and dive in the nude if you want to! The best time is January through March but be warned, just because it is not the rainy season does not mean that it will not pour down!

For more scuba diving and dive travel related information about Palau visit Micronesia diving