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Palau
Photo: Jacob Degee
Palau
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Diving bestseller
Text and photos by land Anna Sołoducha
Underwater photos Jakub Degee
perfectdiver No. 2/2018
There are no spectacular skyscrapers, cosmopolitan cities or highways here. This fabulous world situated at the crossroads of the Pacific Ocean and the Philippine Sea holds something much more valuable (not always appreciated in life) – values that it is hard to dream about in other parts of the world! Being in Palau, we can experience different types of dives, depending on our preferences. There are waiting for us large pelagic animals, endemics, a lake of jellyfish, rich macro world, falling walls, hidden cave systems and tunnels, huge gardens, well-preserved wrecks of the Japanese fleet dating back to the times of World War II (the islands were occupied by the Japanese since 1914). It sounds gorgeous, doesn’t it?
Micronesia lies in the equatorial climate, remarkablymoist, characterized by humidity above 80%.The archipelago has more than 200 islands builtof coral reefs and volcanic rocks and it is one of the most spectacular dive sites in the world. Dives are organized in the form of diving safaris (staying overnight in the boat), or in the form of trips from the selected diving centre (coming back to the hotel every day). Booking a diving safari for the time of all your stay in Palau gives you the possibility to do many dives and reach the most remote spots. From my own experience, however, I can say that the daily flow of ultra-fast, covered motorboats, equipped with two 150 horsepower Yamaha engines, between deserted islands overgrown with luscious greenery is incomparable to anything else! In addition, daily lunches on paradise islands full of coconut palms… something amazing. Dives, as I said at the beginning, are very different and should satisfy even the most demanding diver.
Blue Corner is my Top of the Top in Palau. There are very strong currents in that place. But if there is a current, it means that underwater something
perfectdiver No. 2/2018
interesting is going to happen, and this, in turn, is a sign that you will need a reef hook to stay in place. The diving centre which we used (Sam's Tours) gave us such a "gift" on the first day of diving. Pinned to the reef we were able to observe how smoothly sharks move, as if the current did not exist for them at all. Although it may sound disturbingly, the plateau to which we were pinned is located at the depth of just 15 m. You need only a lightly inflated vest and you can admire fat school sharks, barracudas, schools of cero fish and tunas, caranxes, and all of them against the background of dark blue water. Here the time spent underwater provides so many impressions that you are literally out of breath. Here each dive ends with a scuba sucked out to the limit, because there is so much going on!
The second place, where life underwater is generated by water currents is Ulong Channel. We dive inside a wide and very long corridor hollowed in the barrier reef on the western side of Ulong Island. We meet grey reef sharks, whitetip reef sharks, tunas, groups of black snappers and barracudas. Lettuce corals, resembling lettuce heads, cover the bottom of the channel and are an interesting phenomenon. We dive with the current over a forest of corals until the pressure gauge shows us 50 bar…
If you like diving near walls, you will not be disappointed either when you come to Palau. Big Drop Off is a legend place. With visibility close to 40 m,
there emerges a vertical, steeply sloping wall, covered with soft corals and anemone. Around us we can see sail parrotfish, turtles, cichlids, anglers, angelfish or lionfish… a real treat for lovers of photography! The German Channel is another, phenomenal place. It owes its name… of course to the Germans, because during the Second World War it was the best way to the interior of the atoll, in which submarines moved, and it was the Germans who deepened it. Dives take place at high or low tide because at these moments the largest amount of plankton is delivered and it attracts manta rays. The German Channel – I have nothing more to add, you must see it for yourself!
Diving around the famous Rock Islands, we will be surprised by one more place, namely the Chandelier Cave, a substitute for Mexican cenotes. Diving in this unique cave will take us to five chambers, amongst which the innermost has an amazing look and quite rightly was named the Temple of Doom. Combined chambers full of beautiful karst formations are carved deep into one of the rock islands (about 100 meters).
To adventure seekers we recommend Peleliu – where some of the more devastating battles of World War II took place. Peleliu Express is not for novices – diving in the drift you can stand eye to eye with everything that is in the range between a bull shark or a tiger shark and a marlin or a school of tunas! Diving around Peleliu, why not also go on the very island. It is only 6 km long and yet it has become one of the forgotten pages of the history of the Pacific War. Here one of the major battles took place, in which a total of more than 12 thousand soldiers died. The island where the Japanese
airport was located became a strategic place during the Second World War. During this moving history lesson in which you participate during the trip, you can see a runway, tanks, mortar shells and a Japanese Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter.
Micronesia, although it is quite a general geographical term, can also attract us with numerous wrecks of the Japanese fleet from the Second World War. In the Palau region, there are about 60 of them. One of the most popular is Teshio Maru – a ship that transported the Japanese army and was sunk in March 1944. We can admire the beautiful black corals growing on the wreck. We will also make an easy dive on Jake Seaplane – a small 11 meters long seaplane, which at the end of the war was used as a bomber or participated in kamikaze missions.
Palau constantly delights. There are almost 1,500 species of fish, 700 species of coral, 130 species of sharks. A lot of currents, a lot of plankton, many animals and a lot of "large animals”. The figures speak for themselves. In the waters of the Pacific there is also a nautilus. It lives in the equatorial range from the equator up to the 15th degree of northern and southern latitude (meaning also in Palau). It is called a "living fossil", it has a beautiful, flat, spirally coiled shell, it has remained practically unchanged for nearly 400 million years. During the day, he lives in the sea bottom at the depth of 100 to 300 metres. At night, it goes towards the surface – reaching even 30 to 40 metres to feed on other crustaceans. The shell is the outer protection of the animal and takes part in the regulation of its buoyancy. It is divided internally into a series of chambers. By filling the appropriate number of chambers with gas, the submarine regulates its immersion and can achieve perfect buoyancy, which allows it to travel such large distances. An asymmetric tube connects them through the chambers, the so-called siphon, which is an extension of the nautilus body. The hole of the shell is closed with a fleshy hood and its interior is covered with a pearl layer. Until recently, one of the attractions offered by the diving centres in Palau was catching nautiluses in traps by luring them with fish or chickens when they reached lower depths while hunting. Nautiluses live in low temperatures, but they are able to survive about 48 hours in a lot of warmer waters, hence the idea of showing them to people diving. Thanks to the ability to equalize pressure in their shell, nautiluses do not suffer any harm when meeting scuba divers at such small depths. Scuba diving allows divers to photo-
graph and see closely this unique type of cephalopods. Then the specimen is released so he can go back to the deep sea by itself. A few years ago, the president of Palau presented the government with a project prohibiting diving with nautiluses, in order to protect the species. Even so, diving in Palau we have still an irresistible impression that somewhere beneath us there are organisms that remember the beginning of the Palaeozoic…
When talking about Palau, one cannot fail to mention the worldwide unique phenomenon – Jellyfish Lake. The sea lake is located on the island of Eil Malk and is filled with salt water supplied by underground channels from the sea, while in shallower parts, water is already sweet, diluted by rains. The creatures living in the lake have evolved and adapted to the unusual environment. Thousands of jellyfish have lost venomousness and thus their stinging properties, because their only natural enemy are small sea anemones living under mangroves. It was here where until recently we had an opportunity to snorkel with thousands of jellyfish deprived of their venom. Unfortunately, due to the drought, fresh water stopped feeding the jellyfish lake, causing a record level of salinity. Jellyfish began to disappear, and their population drastically dropped. At this moment, snorkelling in the lake is impossible, but we all believe that the population of these unusual organisms will be reborn again…
Palau is a place that cannot be missed on your diving world map. Certainly you will be fascinated by the exciting edges of reefs whose currents attract schools of sharks as well as manta rays. Fascinating, beautifully overgrown with coral steep drop-offs. Caves – a substitute for Mexican cenotes, as well as tunnels or wrecks of the Japanese fleet. It's a real dive bestseller. Simply.
