Palau - health of reef

[maddmike]

We were in Palau in 2001, and are thinking about going back in 2008. Does anyone have some comparative experience with how the reefs are doing there?

In 2001 I heard the coral was still not recovered from the 1999 El Nino, and that the overall health of the reef was much worse than in the 1980's. Has it improved since 2001?

Thanks.

 

[boydski]

Hi Mike,

We just returned from Palau (and Truk) yesterday. The reefs seemed very healthy to me and I didn't notice any Coral Bleaching at any of the sites we went to. The soft corals are getting huge and we saw lots of the usual suspects (sharks, mantas, cuttlefish, etc).

 

[divebuddy68]

I was in Palau twice, the last time in Feb 05. I noticed a lot of bleaching in the 30 and shallower range.

 

[PalauDiver]

There is bleaching but it varies depending on where you go. The coral does recover very fast but El Nino is always very devastating.

 

[maddmike]

Is it better or worse now than it was 5 years ago?

 

[pakman]

Hi Mike,

We just returned from Palau (and Truk) yesterday. The reefs seemed very healthy to me and I didn't notice any Coral Bleaching at any of the sites we went to. The soft corals are getting huge and we saw lots of the usual suspects (sharks, mantas, cuttlefish, etc).

Boydski, how were the sea conditions in Palau for your trip? Any problems diving Blue corner in the "off season"? debating whether to roll the dice with an aug/ sept trip to Palau... and did you use a liveaboard or land-base dive op?

Mike -sorry for the hijack...:11:

 

[boydski]

Boydski, how were the sea conditions in Palau for your trip? Any problems diving Blue corner in the "off season"? debating whether to roll the dice with an aug/ sept trip to Palau... and did you use a liveaboard or land-base dive op?

Mike

Hi Mike,

There were a few days with a pretty big swell coming in from a Tropical Depression sitting about half way between Palau and Yap. This made skiff rides (from the Aggressor) entertaining, and there was quite a bit of surge at Blue Corner, but we still dove the site 3 times.

It was overcast for the majority of our trip, which is less desirable for photography, but certainly more comfortable temperature-wise. The only sites that the weather prevented us from diving were Pelelieu and Jellyfish lake.

I prefer liveaboards, and the Aggressor crew did a great job.

Have a great trip!

 

[Ilikeair]

I just dove Palau and found the condition of the reef at Blue Corner very sad. Now there may be other environment caused but I saw significant damage being done by divers. The "Reef Hook" system is killing the reef. I saw divers using coral as a handhold, hooking into living coral, actually breaking large pieces of coral off and more than anything kicking coral when they are low and trying to find someplace to hook in to.

Once you are hooked in the damage can continue. You move around in the surge and the line from your hook will hit anything in the area. You inflate your BCD to "get off the bottom" but the damage still happens. It is horrible.

If there is too much current to dive the spot, then we all should just dive someplace else. I wish I did.

Other than that there are serious safety concerns but that's not what this link is about. I will say in response to Boydski's comment above that the "Aggressor crew did a great job" I could not disagree more.

The Palau Aggressor II is a nice boat, great food, nice people but I believe horribly enviornmentally insensitve and also promotes unsafe diving practices. The Aggressor staff would say nothing about buddy teams breaking off from each other, surfacing 10 minutes apart and simply not following any basic diving protocol. They never said anything at briefings or on the dive skiff when buddy teams would surface literally 300 meters apart fom each other completely alone. This is complex diving and the individuals doing this were not trained or equiped for solo diving in ANY way. Some only had 35 dives. You dive with just your buddy in Palau. There is a divemaster leader, one in the middle of the group and one at the end. Plus, they give out EPIRBS to everyone except they were 4 short so some people did not get them... Oops. I saw divemasters using coral handholds, feeding sharks turkey carcasses from the boat - it was an environmental disaster and is every week the boat goes out. Which is every week of the year...

Out of my 9 liveaboard trips I would rate the Palau Aggressor II, dead last.

 

[Diver Dennis]

Wow, you have 2 posts here, both bashing the Aggressor. If you want to have your posts to have any credibility, please fill out your profile, as I pointed out after your first post bashing the Aggressor.

 

[Ilikeair]

Actually, I think I am up to 6 posts. I hope anyone considering Palau knows what I know.