RICHinNC
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Palau Agressor II
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I recently returned from a trip on the Palau Aggressor II and was seriously disappointed.
The boat is beautiful, the food is fantastic, the staff is very friendly, however, I have never seen such disregard for the environment and basic diving safety procedures from a dive crew in my life.
As far as the diving goes, it is advanced. We dove in over-head environments, serious currents (the kind you cannot swim against even for one meter), poor viz at times and using the reef hook system which was invented in Palau.
First, the most amazing thing to me was the complete disregard of the buddy system by the Aggressor II staff and also the disregard of basic environment preservation practices.
Out of the 9 buddy teams we had on board only 3 or 4 were actually performing as buddy teams. We had supposed buddy teams surfacting 10 minutes and/or 300 meters apart from each other. No staff member would ever say anything. I encountered inexperienced divers at 30 meters in poor viz without their buddies who simply did not care. The Palau staff openly spoke about the "freedom" in their diving systems. Some of these divers had 35 dives and some had over 1000. The only time a staff member would say anything is if you stayed down for over 60 minutes. Now I believe that divers are responsible for their own safety and the safety of their buddy, but to have a dive operation that knows that their customers are basically diving in an unsafe way that goes against every scuba diving organization in the world and does not care enough to say one word, is irresponsible and actually criminally negligent.
The diving procedures from the Aggressor II are that you roll in off the skiff and one divemaster leads, one stays in the middle and one follows. Usually the only person you are with is your buddy.
You have probably heard of the reef hook system which was invented in Palau for diving areas like "Blue Corner." The reef hook is a large metal hook with a 2 meter section of clothes line attached to a clip just like the one on a dog leash. As you approach the hook-in location the group of divers lines up on the edge of the drop off, spreads out as much as possible and hooks in to a rock or piece of dead coral. Sounds simple right? Well image 18 divers descending on the coral in serious current, many with HUGE camera rigs, looking for someplace to hook in to before the current sweeps you away. You do not have long to find a spot, maybe just seconds before you will be in a bad location or you might completely miss the opportunity to hook in and you will have just gone on a 10 minute dive. Divers are scrambling. You are heavily exerting yourself. Where is my buddy? Where is the buddy system? If he hooks in upstream of me, I won't be able to swim to him. Where is a spot away from the other divers? Where is a dead piece of coral? Now, don't touch anything or create any disturbance near the coral with your fins? How am I supposed to do that while I am finning as hard as I ever have? OK, you spot someplace to hook in and you do! Yes! Oh wait, where is my buddy? He found someplace way over there? He looks OK. Maybe I'll just stay here. But what if he has a problem? I wouldn't even know it? What if I have a problem? (As you probably already know a woman unfortunately died in Palau attached to a reef hook and her buddy was no assistance) OK, I'll move over by him and try to hook into a dead piece of coral over there. Now you have to deflate your BCD, detach your hook and swim over there to stab a new piece of coral. OK, so that is done. I am hooked in next to my buddy but you are swinging around from the surge and the line from your hook is rubbing on coral. Nightmare! I have to move again. Oops, just got pushed back into something by the current.
You get the idea. Now this is not every diver's experience but I personally witnessed coral damage on almost every dive. And, I obviously was not able to observe every diver throughout the dives. There is no question in my mind that some type of coral damage occurs every time a group decends on the reef. And that happens many times every day of the year.
As far as the Palau Aggressor II goes I saw dive masters carrying special hooks to pull themselves along the reef instead of finning. Just hooking coral every few feet. I saw dive masters and customers frequently using hand holds.
On-board the boat the staff feeds the sharks with turkey carcasses and bones of all sorts. No swimming is allowed from the boat.
They provide EPIRBS to the divers but they were 3 or 4 short so some divers did not get them. People in Palau have drifted away while diving as recently as during the past year. They were found after 10 hours or so.
Lastly, the Palau aggressor staterooms have a serious 1/2 inch mold problem. There are areas that are inaccessable to the maid and the mold just grows on the walls and in the fan etc. It smells like mold. I mention this because mold is a very serious health hazard for some and if you are allergic to mold I would not want to be diving while I was battling the constant mold exposure.
Out of my 9 live-aboard trips, this one rates dead last. At least 50% of the coral at the famed dive spot "Blue Corner" is dead. It will all be dead in 15 years GUARANTEED and the other dive sites will be right behind.
The Palau Aggressor II needs to get a dive professional onboard to review basic diving safety and environmental procedures.
The boat is beautiful, the food is fantastic, the staff is very friendly, however, I have never seen such disregard for the environment and basic diving safety procedures from a dive crew in my life.
As far as the diving goes, it is advanced. We dove in over-head environments, serious currents (the kind you cannot swim against even for one meter), poor viz at times and using the reef hook system which was invented in Palau.
First, the most amazing thing to me was the complete disregard of the buddy system by the Aggressor II staff and also the disregard of basic environment preservation practices.
Out of the 9 buddy teams we had on board only 3 or 4 were actually performing as buddy teams. We had supposed buddy teams surfacting 10 minutes and/or 300 meters apart from each other. No staff member would ever say anything. I encountered inexperienced divers at 30 meters in poor viz without their buddies who simply did not care. The Palau staff openly spoke about the "freedom" in their diving systems. Some of these divers had 35 dives and some had over 1000. The only time a staff member would say anything is if you stayed down for over 60 minutes. Now I believe that divers are responsible for their own safety and the safety of their buddy, but to have a dive operation that knows that their customers are basically diving in an unsafe way that goes against every scuba diving organization in the world and does not care enough to say one word, is irresponsible and actually criminally negligent.
The diving procedures from the Aggressor II are that you roll in off the skiff and one divemaster leads, one stays in the middle and one follows. Usually the only person you are with is your buddy.
You have probably heard of the reef hook system which was invented in Palau for diving areas like "Blue Corner." The reef hook is a large metal hook with a 2 meter section of clothes line attached to a clip just like the one on a dog leash. As you approach the hook-in location the group of divers lines up on the edge of the drop off, spreads out as much as possible and hooks in to a rock or piece of dead coral. Sounds simple right? Well image 18 divers descending on the coral in serious current, many with HUGE camera rigs, looking for someplace to hook in to before the current sweeps you away. You do not have long to find a spot, maybe just seconds before you will be in a bad location or you might completely miss the opportunity to hook in and you will have just gone on a 10 minute dive. Divers are scrambling. You are heavily exerting yourself. Where is my buddy? Where is the buddy system? If he hooks in upstream of me, I won't be able to swim to him. Where is a spot away from the other divers? Where is a dead piece of coral? Now, don't touch anything or create any disturbance near the coral with your fins? How am I supposed to do that while I am finning as hard as I ever have? OK, you spot someplace to hook in and you do! Yes! Oh wait, where is my buddy? He found someplace way over there? He looks OK. Maybe I'll just stay here. But what if he has a problem? I wouldn't even know it? What if I have a problem? (As you probably already know a woman unfortunately died in Palau attached to a reef hook and her buddy was no assistance) OK, I'll move over by him and try to hook into a dead piece of coral over there. Now you have to deflate your BCD, detach your hook and swim over there to stab a new piece of coral. OK, so that is done. I am hooked in next to my buddy but you are swinging around from the surge and the line from your hook is rubbing on coral. Nightmare! I have to move again. Oops, just got pushed back into something by the current.
You get the idea. Now this is not every diver's experience but I personally witnessed coral damage on almost every dive. And, I obviously was not able to observe every diver throughout the dives. There is no question in my mind that some type of coral damage occurs every time a group decends on the reef. And that happens many times every day of the year.
As far as the Palau Aggressor II goes I saw dive masters carrying special hooks to pull themselves along the reef instead of finning. Just hooking coral every few feet. I saw dive masters and customers frequently using hand holds.
On-board the boat the staff feeds the sharks with turkey carcasses and bones of all sorts. No swimming is allowed from the boat.
They provide EPIRBS to the divers but they were 3 or 4 short so some divers did not get them. People in Palau have drifted away while diving as recently as during the past year. They were found after 10 hours or so.
Lastly, the Palau aggressor staterooms have a serious 1/2 inch mold problem. There are areas that are inaccessable to the maid and the mold just grows on the walls and in the fan etc. It smells like mold. I mention this because mold is a very serious health hazard for some and if you are allergic to mold I would not want to be diving while I was battling the constant mold exposure.
Out of my 9 live-aboard trips, this one rates dead last. At least 50% of the coral at the famed dive spot "Blue Corner" is dead. It will all be dead in 15 years GUARANTEED and the other dive sites will be right behind.
The Palau Aggressor II needs to get a dive professional onboard to review basic diving safety and environmental procedures.
Diver Dennis
Contributor
I have sent Ilikeair all the contact names and numbers for the Aggressor so he/she can lodge a complaint. They had not complained to the Aggressor so it seems strange to bring it up in public without at least making the people who run the ship aware of their problem. After repeated requests for this person to fill out their profile, they will not do it. This same message, or very close, has been posted in several different threads here. I have tried to be very civil with all the PMs and posting back and forth but I am concerned about these claims being not being true.
Please make up your own minds by checking this person's posting history.
I was last in Palau in December and the 50% figure describing the dead coral at Blue Corner is at best, an extreme exaggeration.
Please make up your own minds by checking this person's posting history.
I was last in Palau in December and the 50% figure describing the dead coral at Blue Corner is at best, an extreme exaggeration.
Dennis,
I appreciate your concern about my concern. I find it completely odd however. What possible motivation would I have to raise environmental concerns about the reefs in Palau if I was not sincere? If someone doubts my sincerity, please read all of the posts I have put up in response to your attacks on the different forums and then make your own decision. If someone has questions about the Aggressor and their opperating procedures, I am sure they would be happy to talk with them about my opinion. As I have said, I believe in personal responsibility when a diver hits the water. I also believe that dive professionals, like those on the Aggressor, should step up when they witness clearly unsafe behavior. My other concerns with the Aggressor re: chuming the waters, feeding eggs to fish on dives etc. can be substantiated by anyone who has ever been on the Aggressor. It is SOP for them. So is not encouraging the buddy system even for the inexperienced. Once again, I believe all divers are responsible for themselves but just don't understand the indifference on the Aggressor.
As I told you Dennis, I posted in several different forums that had to do with Palau. I researched my trip on this website and, once I was there, realized how lacking the information I had read in advance actually was. It was as it this website had been sanitized. I was simply amazed at the amount of reef damage that I personally witnessed and how the reef hook procedure, in my opinion, guarantees the death of many sections of the reef. Frankly, it saddened me.
Admittedly, I could be wrong about 50% of Blue Corner's coral being destroyed. Maybe it is only 35%. But what is undenyable is the scuba diving industry is killing it and if something is not done it will be dead and dead soon. I am trying to do something. Why does that upset you? I hope you too will look for ways to help the environment and reduce the damage scuba divers do.
I truly cannot understand how upset and aggressive you have been. I have been contacted by visitors to the site via personal message and they told me these types of attacks are the norm on this site. Why? They used words like "brutal" in describing you and those like you. I simply put a post up sharing my viewpoint, some safety concerns I have and, to me most importantly, the incredible damage being done to the reef due to the nature of these dives. Extreme current, diver contact with the reefs and reef hooks.
The only rational explanation I can come up with about your unexplained aggression towards me is that I am negatively impacting your life in some way. What exactly does "supporting member" mean? Are you supporting this website or is it, and its advertisers, supporting you? If that is not the reason then I can only come up with irrational reasons for your behavior. Your behavior towards me is nothing short of deplorable and unstable.
You are doing nothing to promote an open exchange of ideas. You just want to preach what you think is your expert opinion and, I am affraid even with 11,553 posts to your name, not everyone wants to listen. Maybe you should take one day off from posting and just think about it.
I appreciate your concern about my concern. I find it completely odd however. What possible motivation would I have to raise environmental concerns about the reefs in Palau if I was not sincere? If someone doubts my sincerity, please read all of the posts I have put up in response to your attacks on the different forums and then make your own decision. If someone has questions about the Aggressor and their opperating procedures, I am sure they would be happy to talk with them about my opinion. As I have said, I believe in personal responsibility when a diver hits the water. I also believe that dive professionals, like those on the Aggressor, should step up when they witness clearly unsafe behavior. My other concerns with the Aggressor re: chuming the waters, feeding eggs to fish on dives etc. can be substantiated by anyone who has ever been on the Aggressor. It is SOP for them. So is not encouraging the buddy system even for the inexperienced. Once again, I believe all divers are responsible for themselves but just don't understand the indifference on the Aggressor.
As I told you Dennis, I posted in several different forums that had to do with Palau. I researched my trip on this website and, once I was there, realized how lacking the information I had read in advance actually was. It was as it this website had been sanitized. I was simply amazed at the amount of reef damage that I personally witnessed and how the reef hook procedure, in my opinion, guarantees the death of many sections of the reef. Frankly, it saddened me.
Admittedly, I could be wrong about 50% of Blue Corner's coral being destroyed. Maybe it is only 35%. But what is undenyable is the scuba diving industry is killing it and if something is not done it will be dead and dead soon. I am trying to do something. Why does that upset you? I hope you too will look for ways to help the environment and reduce the damage scuba divers do.
I truly cannot understand how upset and aggressive you have been. I have been contacted by visitors to the site via personal message and they told me these types of attacks are the norm on this site. Why? They used words like "brutal" in describing you and those like you. I simply put a post up sharing my viewpoint, some safety concerns I have and, to me most importantly, the incredible damage being done to the reef due to the nature of these dives. Extreme current, diver contact with the reefs and reef hooks.
The only rational explanation I can come up with about your unexplained aggression towards me is that I am negatively impacting your life in some way. What exactly does "supporting member" mean? Are you supporting this website or is it, and its advertisers, supporting you? If that is not the reason then I can only come up with irrational reasons for your behavior. Your behavior towards me is nothing short of deplorable and unstable.
You are doing nothing to promote an open exchange of ideas. You just want to preach what you think is your expert opinion and, I am affraid even with 11,553 posts to your name, not everyone wants to listen. Maybe you should take one day off from posting and just think about it.
i think Dennis was referring to the issue that so far all 18 of your posts have all been against PA II. Obviously you didn't enjoy our trip - and unfortunately that happens, but he was indicating that also you sould contact the Agressor and state your concerns. Being a commercial enterprise, statements regarding safety and negligence are pretty serious in a public forum.
the reason I am reading threads like this is that within the next couple of years I will go to Palau and do need feedback (good/bad/ugly) - however with everything on SB you learn that there are usually more than one side of the story or differning experiences.....
I must admint I've not been there (yet) and so have never seen reef hooks in action (so cannot comment on that aspect of your original post), but they have been discussed on this board before (with both similar and oposed views to you)- another issue you had was with lack of enforcement of buddy teams - also depends on the people and your own point of view - I personally (for my own diving) wouldn't really care one way or the other about it [actually I would hate to be forced to buddy with someone I didn't want to dive with]..people are adults and can make their own choice of strong, weak or non-existant buddy teams (this topic has also been discussed at length with varying points of view )...not sure if any of the liveaborard or shore based ops out there would act very differnently...all would use reef hooks, probably all are relaxed on buddys.....
...anyhow....as you can see SB has all sort of poits of view...continue to post..questions, points of view......that's what its all about......but don't take things personally....
the reason I am reading threads like this is that within the next couple of years I will go to Palau and do need feedback (good/bad/ugly) - however with everything on SB you learn that there are usually more than one side of the story or differning experiences.....
I must admint I've not been there (yet) and so have never seen reef hooks in action (so cannot comment on that aspect of your original post), but they have been discussed on this board before (with both similar and oposed views to you)- another issue you had was with lack of enforcement of buddy teams - also depends on the people and your own point of view - I personally (for my own diving) wouldn't really care one way or the other about it [actually I would hate to be forced to buddy with someone I didn't want to dive with]..people are adults and can make their own choice of strong, weak or non-existant buddy teams (this topic has also been discussed at length with varying points of view )...not sure if any of the liveaborard or shore based ops out there would act very differnently...all would use reef hooks, probably all are relaxed on buddys.....
...anyhow....as you can see SB has all sort of poits of view...continue to post..questions, points of view......that's what its all about......but don't take things personally....
Diver Dennis
Contributor
Ilikeair:
Please contact the moderators of this board to complain about my "brutal" nature. I have done nothing more than respond to your anonymous allegations that you have brought out into a public forum without even contacting the company you are complaining about. I sent you a PM giving you the contact email and phone number for this company. Have you contacted them yet?
You have also accused me of having one of your posts removed, which turned out to be another unfounded allegation.
What exactly did you mean by this statement?
Again an unfounded allegation since most of the friends I dive with are from the Philippines. My point is that if you have no credibility, and choosing to remain anonymous instead of filling out your profile like the rest of us drops yours to 0 here, you had better be prepared to back them up.
Stu, I agree with what you have said. I do want to say that my main concern is the damage to the reef and the Aggressor only plays a small role in that. My comments about the reef hook and reef damage are not directed specifically at the Aggressor more than any other diving organization there. The reef hook was actually invented by the owner of Sam's on Palau (according to Sam). It's the scuba industry that's killing the reef. Obviously, I think the Aggressor is not setting a good example feeding fish etc. The buddy issue surprised me with inexperienced divers involved but I can get over that too. It is information I think should be available to divers before they decide to go on a trip with them. I think more information is better and then divers can take it or leave it.
Dennis my comments regarding Asians obviously just stems from your previous posts regarding Asian divers which I found offensive. Your words speak for themself. As with everything, others can decide.
Did you forget to answer my question as to weather you make money off of this site? I think you did.
Do you really think my credibility with you matters to me? The information I have provided is accurate. Those who travel to Palau will discover that. Obviously many will - hopefully they will report back. As far as me not contacting the Aggressor I am not sure where you got that. I did not make a stink on board for several reasons. One was personal reasons. I was with my wife and our best friends and did not want things to get ugly. The main one is that I did not believe they would be receptive. I have made my feelings known to the Aggressor's corporate offices via their follow-up questionaire process. That said, as I told you earlier in a personal e-mail, I think it will do no good. The Palau Aggressor is the most successful boat in the Aggressor fleet. They will continue to drop divers on these sites with reef hooks unless they are stopped or we, divers, decide we care more about the reef than some fun and stop going to reef hook dive sites in Palau.
Dennis, exactly what information that I have provided about the Aggressor or Palau that you feel is so wrong?
Do you think the Aggressor feeds fish/sharks from the boat and on dives? They do.
Do you think the Aggressor is, for better or worse, lax in terms of following PADI or any other specific diving protocol including the buddy system? They are.
I think we have hammered out the reef hook/drift dive issue. Yes we agree the reef is being damaged one way or another by divers. You think it is an isolated region and acceptable amount of damage, I do not.
I also believe that there are safety issues involving the use of a reef hook and hope all prepare themselves who are still going to go.
I have not said ANYTHING about the Palau Aggressor that would not be substantiated by someone who has been on the boat. Have I?
Dennis my comments regarding Asians obviously just stems from your previous posts regarding Asian divers which I found offensive. Your words speak for themself. As with everything, others can decide.
Did you forget to answer my question as to weather you make money off of this site? I think you did.
Do you really think my credibility with you matters to me? The information I have provided is accurate. Those who travel to Palau will discover that. Obviously many will - hopefully they will report back. As far as me not contacting the Aggressor I am not sure where you got that. I did not make a stink on board for several reasons. One was personal reasons. I was with my wife and our best friends and did not want things to get ugly. The main one is that I did not believe they would be receptive. I have made my feelings known to the Aggressor's corporate offices via their follow-up questionaire process. That said, as I told you earlier in a personal e-mail, I think it will do no good. The Palau Aggressor is the most successful boat in the Aggressor fleet. They will continue to drop divers on these sites with reef hooks unless they are stopped or we, divers, decide we care more about the reef than some fun and stop going to reef hook dive sites in Palau.
Dennis, exactly what information that I have provided about the Aggressor or Palau that you feel is so wrong?
Do you think the Aggressor feeds fish/sharks from the boat and on dives? They do.
Do you think the Aggressor is, for better or worse, lax in terms of following PADI or any other specific diving protocol including the buddy system? They are.
I think we have hammered out the reef hook/drift dive issue. Yes we agree the reef is being damaged one way or another by divers. You think it is an isolated region and acceptable amount of damage, I do not.
I also believe that there are safety issues involving the use of a reef hook and hope all prepare themselves who are still going to go.
I have not said ANYTHING about the Palau Aggressor that would not be substantiated by someone who has been on the boat. Have I?
Diver Dennis
Contributor
Which posts were disparaging to Asians? Post them so we can all see. I want to see what you have found offensive. I know a lot of Asian divers on this board and you labeling me as racist is a very serious allegation. Let's see some proof.
Tell you what. Go ahead and start a thread about the Aggressor and see how many people back you up. There are a lot of divers here that have been on that boat. I'm interested to know since I haven't seen anyone backing up your allegations on any of the threads you have posted on. In fact, I'll follow up your complaint with the Aggressor if you like. No, I have no affiliation with them either but I'll help you out here. PM me your name and I will call the same person whose name, email and phone number I sent you. If all of these allegations are true, I'll try and get you at least a letter of apology and an explanation.
I have no affiliation with this board and make no money from it. I'm not afraid to answer any of your questions. You have seen my profile and know who I am. Who are you?
Tell you what. Go ahead and start a thread about the Aggressor and see how many people back you up. There are a lot of divers here that have been on that boat. I'm interested to know since I haven't seen anyone backing up your allegations on any of the threads you have posted on. In fact, I'll follow up your complaint with the Aggressor if you like. No, I have no affiliation with them either but I'll help you out here. PM me your name and I will call the same person whose name, email and phone number I sent you. If all of these allegations are true, I'll try and get you at least a letter of apology and an explanation.
I have no affiliation with this board and make no money from it. I'm not afraid to answer any of your questions. You have seen my profile and know who I am. Who are you?
So, how do you have such strong feelings about the Aggressor with no first-hand knowledge? Contact them they will probably tell you what I say is true. Actually, I just realized another person on the boat I know took photos of the shark feeding from the boat and the egg feeding on the dive. If you need me to dig up the photos of those two incidents to put you at ease, let me know and I will figure out how to do it. Might take me a day or two as I have to get them from my friend who was on board.
What other claims do you need me to back up?
What other claims do you need me to back up?
Diver Dennis
Contributor
No, I'm talking about the safety issues and the mold you said was a half an inch thick. What exactly did you put in your complaint to them?
I would like an answer to my question about where I said bad things about Asian divers.
Are you going to start a thread?
I would like an answer to my question about where I said bad things about Asian divers.
Are you going to start a thread?
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