The latitude and longitude of Palau are about 7 degrees north and 134 degrees east. The archipelago lies within the much larger group of thousands of islands that make up Micronesia, which means “tiny islands.” Approximately 800 kilometers north of New Guinea, southeast of the Philippines, and southwest of Guam, Palau consists of roughly 500 islands.
Palau has a maritime tropical climate with a large amount of rainfall. The average daily temperature for the year is 81℉ (28℃), while the relative humidity is about 82%. An annual average of 381 centimeters of rain falls on Palau, feeding into the rivers and streams and adding to the humidity. Wind direction shifts occur with the trade winds blowing from the northeast and east from November to May. Then the monsoon winds come up from the southwest from June to September.
Palau has declared itself as the world’s first shark sanctuary. In 2009, it launched the Palau Shark Sanctuary to do its part in fighting for an end to shark finning in Palau and around the globe.
(For more details, see: http://www.sharksanctuary.com/)
Palau’s Rock Islands were listed as a World Heritage Site in 2012. Many of the 445 uninhabited limestone islands of volcanic origin the southern lagoon have unique mushroom-like shapes, surrounded by turquoise water and coral reefs.
The site’s incredible beauty is made even more impressive by the complex reef system, featuring over 385 species of coral as well as a wide array of ecosystems. This is home to a great diversity of plants, birds and marine life, including dugong and at least thirteen shark species.
(For more details, see: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1386)
Palau is known as one of the planet’s best places to be underwater. Its dive sites attract visitors for all sorts of reasons, including huge schools of fish, plenty of sharks, and healthy reefs, as well as wrecks of the Second World War and the world-famous Jellyfish Lake and Blue Corner.
Most months the water temperature is around 30℃. Only from February to March does it occasionally drop to about 26℃. Average underwater visibility is roughly 20 meters but sometimes goes up to 40 meters! From July to September, heavy rains and strong winds can brings a drop in visibility to between 15 and 20 meters.
Palau features about 30 major dive sites, from walls and tunnels to channels and wrecks.
Here are just a few of the most famous of these sites:
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It’s still very windy but at least
it was sunny today.
Air temperature: 29C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on two boats.
BM3
Operator: Susie
Guides: Clayton / Hiro / Shohei / Yuto
① Ngemelis Coral Garden
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
④ Chuyo Maru
BM6
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Paula
① Bento
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
The wind and swell are still strong, limiting
our choices of dive points. Oh noooooo! We still
had fun, though. At Bento we had a Randall’s
shrimp goby party. Randall’s wherever you looked.
Also a genormous green sea turtle and many yellowfin
goatfish.
Blue Corner delivered as it always does – a super nice
outgoing current treated us to grey reef sharks, black
spot barracudas, blackfin barracudas, bigeye trevallies,
a hawksbill turtle, a green sea turtles and an octopus!
Also a huuuuuuge dogtooth tuna and Spanish mackerel as
well as many giant trevallies.
At German Channel we found a manta but in my personal
opinion the highlight was the huge school of bigeye
trevallies creating a tornado above us! Also a large
school of whitetongue jacks as well as many baby grey
reef sharks!
Have a nice evening!
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Alii from Palau
this Clayton doing dive bog for 02/22/20
how you all doing? hope all is good!
1st dive at Ngemelis wall for check dive.
weak incoming current with poor visibility.
we got surge all the way down to 20m and
we got the trigger fish nesting so i avoid
their space. so it took over 20mins to see
my first turtle and usually it does not took
that long. 3 big buffalo fish came swim down
with the current passing by us. we saw the school
of red fin snappers, but there were only few of
them still staying behind, maybe less than 100.
but let me say, the high light for this dive was
a young manta ray that appeared behind our
group as i turned around to check on my team.
It came toward us, unfold its nose and pause
for a moment and recoil its nose and gently
swam pass by us, nice, very nice.
2nd dive at New Drop Off with 18m visibility.
a weak outgoing current, perfect for our first day
divers and first time in Palau, so they can enjoy
such experience here in the island. all the stars
were present and the napoleon wrasse was doing
his thing with 5 diffrent female wrasse. well too bad
my team did not know and understand such behavior.
well you just have to dive more and read more about
fish life then you can understand when such behavior
happened under water.
3rd dive at Blue Corner with 15m visibility.
made a wrong entry point on the reef, cause
the current was kind a hard to predict. I mean
it was not me who check the current. but anyway
no worries Tonton knew what to do. I showed all
the stars of blue corner with out a sweat. plus a bonus,
3 big bad ass dog tooth tuna, nice. I rest my case.
thank you for enjoying reading my dive blog and I
welcome you again next time.
Tonton signing out , Happy Diving where ever
you are.
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Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was grim today.
Air temperature: 26C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on two boats.
BM3
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi / Paula / Yuto
① Big Drop Off
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu / Taichi
① Blue Corner
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
The wind has been rough on us and the
water conditions are challenging. There’s
a lot of swell and the visibility isn’t
at its best BUT we had a great day diving
anyways! At Big Drop Off it was a macro
party! Seriously! We even found a leaf
fish! So cuute! Like a leaf with eyes.
Also two baby dapple coris. Yay for baby fish.
At Blue Corner we split the team into macro
team and drift team, so the macro team explored
the macro hole at 32 metres and the drift team
entered from the outgoing side to hop onto
a veeeeery slow outgoing current. There were
lots of bigeye trevallies and giant trevallies,
blackspot barracudas and blackfin barracudas!
At German Channel the visibility was very poor
but Tomi’s team managed to catch a manta cleaning.
The other two teams weren’t as lucky…
Here are some pictures that Mr. Kouzai and
Mr. Komoike took today! Thank you!!
Have a great evening and see you tomorrow!
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Alii!!! It’s Yu!!
Today was fine all day!
But north wind was strong and large swells
are cominng in from the west side.
Due to the effect,the visibility was poor everywhere…
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 27C
BM3
Operator: Moon
Guide: Tomi,Yu
① Aquarium
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Rush
① Grass Land
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
1st point is our original point.
We used a reef hook because there is strong current!
We saw so many sharks and baby sharks.
I also saw school of twospotsnapper & yellowfingoatfish.
2nd point is Siaes corner.
We find 500 orangespine unicornfishes!!
You can only see this fish at this time!
It’s only before newmoon of January,February,March.
We are super lucky!!
3rd was Ulong Cliff.
We want to dive Ulong Channel but current was changed
to out going.So we gave up to dive Channel.
We saw school of blackspot barracudas, whitetongue jacks,
and baby spotted eagle ray too!! It was nice dive!
See you tomorrow!
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Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was mixed today.
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Moon
Guide: Paula
① Siaes Corner
② Ulong Channel
③ Grassland
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Clayton
Intro: Hiro
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ Chuyo Maru
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi / Yu
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ New Drop Off
At Siaes Corner we had the whooooole spot
to ourselves at a super nice incoming current.
Sharks galore! Everywhere! Not just at the
hooking areas but seriously all along the edge
of the reef. Yay!
At Ulong Channel the current was mildly
incoming and we drifted super comfortably
over the sandy channel. There were so many
groupers today, and also yellowmargin triggerfish.
Abunai!
At German Channel our other teams all saw a manta
despite the very weak outgoing current. Yay! The
visibility was muuuuuch better at Blue Corner and
New Drop Off where it was at over 25 metres! Beautiful!
The current at Blue Corner was almost non-existent
and so all the fish gathered at the corner in one
giant spectacular array! At New Drop Off the current
was more solidly outgoing and made for a fun drift
dive!
I wonder what we can see tomorrow?
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Alii from Palau
how you all doing? hope all is good!
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 02/18/20
1st dive at Siaes tail with 25m visibility.
outgoing current that it took us 10mins
to reach the hooking point. while hooked
in a school of orange spine surgeon fish
came in huge number, maybe around 1000.
as we unhooked and drift along the reef
we came upon the school of one spot
barracuda. as some divers were taking
picture a mangrove sting ray swam toward
us. wanted to go further to look for the
school of big eye trevally but i have to end
the dive because we were low on air.
2nd dive at shark city with 25m visibility.
weak in coming current and i like this of the
reef. it has a nice reef formation and there
are big sea fun corals along the wall. lots of
schooling fish like the fusiliers,red tooth
trigger fish and butterfly fish. but there was this
rare snapper called blubberlip and it was quite
big. i have only see this on 3 dive point.
a huge giant trevally showed up and made
the small fishes swam toward us, nice.
tried to look for the school barracuda out
in the blue water, but no luck.
3rd dive at grass land with 10m visibility.
a weak out going current that make all
the schooling fish scattered over reef.
but the cool part of this dive was crocodile
fish, you dont get see this weird fish all the
time. just as we were about to end our dive
2 bad ass dog tooth tuna showed up to say
good bye, nice.
thank you again. Tonton signing out
Happy Diving where ever you are.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
What a beautiful day today was!
Air temperature: Hot (31C)
Water temperature: Well… (27C)
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Moon
Guides: Paula and Shohei
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ New Drop Off
④ Chandelier Cave
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Clayton and Rusher
① Blue Corner
② Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi and Yu
① Blue Holes
② German Channel
③ Blue Corner
At German Channel we got treated to a
surprise feeding spectacle in the morning!
The current was nice and incoming and the
visibility already great. When we arrived
at the cleaning station we were wondering
where the mantas were hanging out at, but
a quick look to the surface revealed two
of them FEEDING! Yayyyyy! Awesome!!
At Blue Corner the current was strong outgoing
when we first entered but slowed down just
in time for us to reach the hooking area and
watch a nice shark show! We also saw black
spot barracudas and blackfin barracudas as
well as bigeye trevallies, whitetongue jacks
and the friendly Napoleon. All the stars
were there.
At New Drop Off there were also lots of
sharks but what captured our attention the most
were two octopus engaged in a very heated
territorial dispute. They didn’t mind us whatsoever
and just kept going at each other. That was fun
to watch!
Have a nice evening!
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Alii from Palau
how you all doing? hope all is good!
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 02/16/20
1st dive at Ulong channel with 15m visibility.
slow incoming current, cause today is half moon.
again we saw that young baby eagle ray, kinda
friendly that allow divers to get close for a
picture, usually they stay away from divers.
approach the entrance of the channel to
find 11 gray reef shark circling. was looking
for the baby sharks but saw only few. this time
i missed the school of big eye trevally, i wonder
where do they go with such weak current.
2nd dive at Siaes Tunnel with 20m visibility.
not so much on this dive but we got the see
some rare fish in the tunnel, like the herliqiun
grouper, Collins angel fish,decorated dart fish.
yeah, just those 3 fish cause my light went
out toward the end of the tunnel. shit.
3rd dive at Siaes corner with 20m visibility.
nice incoming current, but after 17mins the
current some how change suddenly, but we
were able to reach the corner. again the
school of gray reef sharks were present
and a huge dog tooth tuna appeared from
the blue, maybe about 110lbs, it was big
that it scared the school of black snapper
out in the blue water up the reef. so with
the sudden change of current i give up
looking for the barracuda out in the blue.
so i just stick to the reef and let my team
do their thing.
thank you for your time and see you
next time. Tonton signing out.
Happy Diving everyone.
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was nice today! Yay!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats.
BM1
Operator: Moon
Guide: Tomi
① Blue Corner
② New Drop Off
③ German Channel
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Clayton and Rusher
① German Channel
② Blue Holes
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Hiro / Paula / Shohei / Shiori
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
Today was awesooooooooooooooome.
At first we had a great dive at German
Channel at about 15 metres visibility. Yay!
The main cleaning station was super crowded
and people were too close. Not yay. We decided
to move towards the garden eels and apparently
the mantas decided to do so, too, because they
seemed to just be following us around. Every
time we tried to show a school of fish, they
re-appeared seemingly randomly from all directions.
One of them was Freckles, about the other one
I’m not sure. Sorry, Manta Number 2.
Blue Corner was fantaaaastic. We got a super strong
outgoing current and drifted along the reef – WOOOSH.
When we hooked there were sooo many grey reef sharks
and to make our dive, the school of blackfin
barracudas suddenly appeared from behind! So cool!
Also the friendly Napoleon came up super close.
I’m using a lot of exclamation marks today so you
can probably tell I’m excited and it was a great dive.
Clayton claims he saw a hammerhead. I cannot confirm
that because I didn’t see it but let’s give him the
benefit of the doubt.
Have a great evening and talk to you tomorrow!
Also, you should probably follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
alii from Palau
how you all doing? hope all is good!
1st dive at Ulong cliff with 15m visibility.
weak incoming current, perfect for beginner
diver. the high light for this dive was young
baby spotted eagle ray that was hanging
around the cliff. this is rare for such young
eagle ray to be around at this point. it
suppose to be inside the channel to mature
enought to venture outside the reef. another
high light is the school of baby gray reef sharks
that going in circle at the entrance of the
channel.
2nd dive at Grass land with 15m visibility.
again weak outgoing current, cause its 2 days
to half moon, perfect for my divers. all the stars
were there, including a manta ray that put a smile
on everybody and made their day, nice! but the
high light for this dive was the African Pamapno
that appeared at grass land, and you probably
know that this fish belongs in cold water, so
that means that Palau’s water is cold than
usual.
3rd dive at Siaes Corner with 15m visibility.
weak outgoing gurrent that made a nice and
easy drift dive along the wall. That gives a
good photo opportunity and photographer
time to enhance their skills. the high light
for this dive was the schools of gray reef
sharks from big size to small ones that swim
back and ford along the drop off showing
their sexy appeal.Lol..
once again thank you for your time and see
you next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy diving everyone.
Alii from Palau
This is Clayton doing dive for 02/13/20.
how you all doing? hope all is good.
pretty strong wind today and cloudy and
rainy. but a bad day for diving is better
than a good day in the office.
1st dive at German channel with a poor
visibility from 5 to 8m. a outgoing current
at the channel bringing a murky water
down to the channel. as we swam toward
the cleaning station we kinda focus on small
fish just to buy time until we reach the station.
one young manta at the south side station. but
when we return back to check on the north side
cleaning station 2 manta were sharing the
station. with this kind of visibility nothing
beats the power of the manta ray, thank you
MR. Manta.
2nd dive at Blue Corner with 20m visibility.
start our dive with a nice outgoing current, that
it took us 8mins to reach the hooking point. stayed
for 18mins watching fish activity, so at one time I
counted 21 gray reef sharks going up and down
the current. so I was like, man, alot of sharks.
but when we unhooked and drift with the current,
more sharks were down the reef, nice! the high
light for this dive was not just the sharks, a
school of orange spine surgeon fish(about 200 of them).
appeared along with more sharks, wow! too much going
on at blue corner, and finally we end our dive with the
school of black fin barracuda, off to the blue water.
3rd dive at New drop off with 20m visibility.
again another nice outgoing current, that it took
us 13mins to reach the hooking point. stayed for
17mins watching fish activity. we got the giant
trevally chasing the school of fusilier back and ford.
while still on the hook, a big Spanish mackerel chase
the school of one spot barracuda up the reef right
in front of us. as we unhooked and drift along the
reef a school of Bonito came dashing behind us,
went a head for few minutes and came back again.
that fish is fast, that some of the divers didnt have
the chance to take a photo. and finally we came
up on the blue lined snappers for the last shot
before ending our dive.
so now you know, what i mean when i say, a bad
day for diving is better than a good day at the office.
thank you for your time and see you next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy Diving…..
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Terrible weather today.
Air temperature: 26
Water temperature: 27
I know for sure the water temperature
was higher than the air temperature because
everytime I got spraid with sea water on
the way back, it actually felt nice and warm.
We went out on three boats. Fun times!
BM2 – Charter
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Tomi / Paula / Shohei / Yuto
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Hiro / Shiori
① Ngemelis Wall
② Blue Corner
③ New Drop Off
Our boats ventured out in all different
directions today! The rain got us all though…
At German Channel Yu’s team watched three mantas
cleaning before the visibility decided to drop.
At Grassland the current was nicely outgoing and
apparently just right for a manta but with a very
late start. After doing a big loop over the sandy
area we returned to the cleaning station for another
manta check – no manta, or so we thought. Instead there
was a large school of blackspot barracudas near the
station and everyone got excited. While we were busy
observing our blackspotted friends, suddenly A MANTA
APPEARED over the shallow coral! It swam right at us
and I’m quite sure it wanted to swallow me whole, but
then last minute it turned and went to the cleaning
station for a nice thorough deep-clean. We enjoyed the
show for 10 minutes but then a sneaky shark came and
claimed its spot on the cleaning station, causing the
manta to be upset and leave. Perfect timing though!
At Siaes Corner we also caught nice outgoing current
and were treated to a spectacle of fusiliers being
chased by two large dogtooth tunas, at least four
gold-spotted trevallies and many many bluefin trevallies.
There were also soooo many sharks doing their rounds in
front of us! Great dive!
That’s it for today, see you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It’s still windy but it was very
sunny today!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on three boats today!
BM1
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Paula / Shohei
① German Channel
② Big Drop Off
③ Bento
BM2 – Charter
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu
① Ngemelis Wall
② New Drop Off
BM6
Operator: Moon
Guides: Rusher / Hiro / Shiori
① German Channel
② Ngerchong Inside
③ Big Drop Off
Mantaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Again. The visibility
was absolutely dreadful at German Channel.
I cannot even think of a way to make it
sound good. It was murky like the milky way
BUT we snuggled into the little pocket at
the main cleaning station and got treated
to a manta festival. They came up super
close and swam over our heads as though they
wanted to make sure we saw them despite the
bad visibility. Yayyyyy!! There were at least
five of them and a baby one!!!
At Big Drop Off the visibility was nice and
we had fun with many fish big and small, as
well as a giant moray eel.
At Bento we got a rare treat. Guess! Okay fine
I’ll tell you. We found a huuuuuuuuuuge nurse
shark! It was sleeping under a rock and at
first nobody noticed but when we finished
watching some gobies (a Randall’s and a graceful
shrimp goby) we suddenly realised it was right
in front of us! It just kept sleeping and sleeping
and we kept watching and watching. That was awesome.
I hope tomorrow will be as great as today! Just with
less wind and waves and swell and all.
Have a nice evening!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Wow the weather was grim today.
Air temperature: 28C
Water temperature: 27C (cooooold)
We went out on one boat today. Chill times.
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Rusher / Paula / Shohei / Yuto
Intro / Refresh: Hiro
① German Channel
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
Mantaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! The visibility may have
been less than optimal at 8 metres but who
cares when you have a huge manta cleaning right
in front of you? It was a great show and we had
awesome seats! When the outgoing current was
getting stronger and the manta getting harder
and harder to recognise, we headed back towards
German Drop – or Fish Kindergarten – where we had
fun with little baby pennant bannerfish, blue-lined
snappers and yellowback fusiliers.
At New Drop Off we caught nice outgoing current and
drifted from the outside buoy all the way to the
hooking area where there were lots of sharks. Also
a small school of whitetongue jacks and lots of
blackspot barracudas were swimming in front of us.
Last but not least we found two large green sea
turtles. Good dive!
At Blue Corner there was nooooobody. A rare treat.
The current was weak incoming and there were sooo
many bigeye trevallies! Also a dogtooth tuna and
lots of bluefin trevallies and gold-spotted trevallies
were hunting the fusiliers around and it made for
a spectacular show. Since there were no other divers,
the friendly Napoleon also came super close. Yay!
Let’s hope for better weather and equally good
diving tomorrow!!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Beautiful weather today but
it was a little windy again.
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on two boats today.
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Clayton / Paula / Shiori / Taichi
① Grassland
② Aquarium
③ Ulong Cliff – Channel
BM7
Operator: Moon
Guides: Yu / Shohei
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Channel
Today was the day of the ray! (That rhyme
was unintended but I’ll take credit for it
anyways.)
First we got two mantas at Grassland! Not
at the same time but still, two mantas are
better than one manta! There were also soo
many blackspot barracudas and sawtooth
barracudas!
At Aquarium we met the first spotted eagle
ray of the day – it was pretty big! We also
saw many yellowfin goatfish and twinspot
snappers.
At Siaes Corner there were looooots of grey
reef sharks! Nice dive!
Last but not least we waited for just the
right incoming current and then drifted into
the channel. At the mouth of the channel we
met a baby spotted eagle ray (so cute) and
there were also lots of bigeye trevallies
and bigeye scads as well as of course sharks!
Today was fun! I can’t wait for tomorrow!
alii from Palau
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 02/08/20
been awhile since my last post. how you all
doing? hope all is good.
1st dive at Blue corner with 25m visibility.
nice, strong incoming current. all the stars
were present. hooked in on the 14m, stayed
for 12mins watching the school of big eye
trevally with the barracuda off to the blue.
move to the 18m spot stayed for a while
watching the napoleon wrasse posing for
the camera while a spanish mackerel
cruising on the back ground. drift along
the reef to find the school of moorish
idle on the tip of reef with tons of gray
reef sharks waiting for the opportunity
to attack the fish. drift out in to the blue
to find 2 huge dog tooth tuna, over 70lbs
in size. what a dive!
2nd dive at new drop off with 25m
visibility. start our dive with a slow incoming
current. after 13mins the current change to
outgoing. no worries, im only 30ft from
hooking point. establish our position on the
reef and watch fish activity. while hooked in,
i saw a octopus about 4ft away from me, not
only one, there were 2 octopus, nice. as we
unhook and drift with the current back to find
couple of turtles and the school of blue lined
snappers and then we end our dive with total
time of 50mins. its another fantastic dive and
good thing about this dive,was there were no other
divers in the water for 37mins until we get to see
them.
3rd dive at german channel with 12m visibility.
you may think that, its bad, but no. it was not
that bad. we had a nice incoming current that
push most of the schooling fish to the mouth
of the channel along the reef slope. as we drift
along, all the fish are lined up just waiting for
us to take their picture, again, nice. yeah, i know,
you probably asking, what about the manta ray.
i safe the best for the last. so the first manta came
and greet us and then shoot down and turned out
into the blue. next 2 manta came, one heading
straight to us that we have to give way. the other
one went over us, then suddenly another one came
behind us cutting in between the 2 manta making
a manta sandwitch. i know you never heard of
such thing, just the manta ray train. so again to
make the story short, we saw total of 5 manta
at one time, but i think they were more.
thank you again see you next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy diving.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Awesome weather today!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Susie
Guide: Hiro
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Channel
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Rusher / Paula / Shohei / Taichi
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Channel
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① Shark City
② Peleliu Cut
③ Peleliu Express
④ German Channel
Today at Grassland there were sooo many
blackspot barracudas mingling with lots
of fusiliers that were being eaten by
bluefin trevallies and grey reef sharks!
Feeding party!
At Siaes Corner the current was weak incoming
but there were sooooo many fish at the hooking
area – grey reef sharks, dogtooth tunas,
gold spotted trevallies, bluefin trevallies…
At Ulong Channel we caught great incoming
current and drifted all the way over the
cabbage coral! We spotted lots of bigeye
trevallies and blackspot barracudas!
The Peleliu team got treated to an early red
snapper spawning party and then in Peleliu
saw many giant trevallies and a bull shark!
Have a nice evening!!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The ocean was super calm today!
Finally! And we got some sun!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats today.
BM3
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Rusher / Paula / Shiori / Taichi
① Blue Corner
② New Drop Off
③ German Channel
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Yu / Hiro
① New Drop Off
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Tomi
① Ukaku Channel
② Galaxy
③ Ukaku Channel
At Blue Corner the current was incoming
at just the right speed and we got wrapped
up in soooo many big eye trevallies! There
were also lots of blackspot barracudas and
the Napoleon came up super close for many
photo OPs. Also I’m happy to report that the
decorated dartfish is still hanging out!
At New Drop Off Hiro’s team spotted a blackfin
shark! And one of our customers saw a hammerhead!!
At German Channel we got two cleaning mantas.
It seems all the mantas were in Ukaku today,
where Tomi’s team spotted about 15 of them!!
I wonder what we can see tomorrow?
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Today was muuuuch calmer than yesterday!
A little rain but also a little sunny!
Air temperature: 29C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats today.
BM3
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Rusher / Paula with Shiori
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Yu / Hiro with Shohei
① Siaes Corner
② Ulong Cliff
③ Grassland
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Tomi
① Siaes Corner
② Shark City
③ Siaes Tail
It’s picture time:
Thank you to the awesome photographer!
Again today we saw many moorish idols but
also lots of sawtooth barracudas and blackspot
barracudas, as well as two friendly hawksbill
turtles.
The highlight of the day was when BM7 found
a school of pigmy killer whales near Siaes Tail!
They were playing and hanging out right below
the boat! What a treat!
Have a nice evening and see you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was not great today.
Windy with occasional rain showers.
Air temperature: 27C
Water temperature: 27C (so. cold.)
We went out on three boats today.
BM3
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Rusher / Paula with Shiori
① Big Drop Off
② German Channel
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① New Drop Off
② Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Yu
① Ngerchong Outside
② Ngerchong Inside
③ W Reef
We got moorish idols agaaaaaaain! In the
most unexpected of places (at least for me) –
Big Drop Off! We decided to do Big Drop Off
for our first dive for some macro fun and
were thus super surprised when suddenly there
were about 400 (!!) moorish idols schooling
all around us!! Wohoooo!!
At Ngerchong Outside the visibility was super
nice and the conditions were calm and everybody
had fun observing lots of dogtooth tunas and
Spanish mackerels!
At Blue Corner the current was strong outgoing
and there were sooooooooo many sharks at the
hooking area! Later as we continued on top of
the reef we first got treated to a school of
blackfin barracudas, and then sooo many big eye
trevallies and blackspot barracudas!
Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the wind
to calm down tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Man it was rough today!
Very sunny though!
We went out on three boats.
BM3
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Rusher with Shohei / Paula with Shiori
① German Channel
② Blue Holes
③ Blue Corner / Ngemelis Wall
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Yu / Hiro
① Blue Corner
② Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
BM7 – Charter
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Tomi
① Blue Corner
② Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
It was a very blue day but only in the
colourful sense, we all had fun. At German
Channel we saw two mantas, one was cleaning
up super close and basically almost trying
to eat one of the customers! Then just as
we decided to leave a baby manta showed
up behind us! So cute! We also got to see
them from above during our safety stop and
compare their difference in size!
At Blue Holes the visibility was surprisingly
good and there were no other divers. Yay!
We had fun with the electric flame scallop
and a super cute little shrimp whose name
I do not know sat close by, posing for the
cameras.
At Blue Corner it was the day of the moorish
idols! There were approximately 400 of them!
At Ngemelis Wall we found a CROCODILEFISH!
My personal highlight of the day besides the
mantas!
See you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Today was windy with occasional rain.
Air temperature: 29C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats.
BM1
Operator: Joe
Guide: Clayton
① German Channel
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu with Shiori / Paula
① German Channel
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
Today was the day of the mantas, barracudas,
grey reef sharks and moorish idols!
At German Channel we saw two mantas cleaning
super close in front of us and then got another
bonus manta below us during our safety stop.
There were also blackfin barracudas. Why? I’m
not sure.
At New Drop Off we saw about 40 moorish idols,
a small teaser for what was waiting for us at
Blue Corner. There were also lots of blackspot
barracudas! And dragonets. Dragonets are adorable.
At Blue Corner the moorish idol party was on.
Seriously, guys, it was CRAAAAAAZY. There were
about FIVE HUNDRED (yes, 500!) moorish idols schooling
all around us and omg I cannot even, it was THE
BEST EVER!!! I wish I had pictures but I do not. Yet.
I will add them tomorrow. It was quite spectacular
though, also because they were constantly being
stalked by about 40-50 grey reef sharks! And a large
dogtooth tuna who just rammed into the school and
ate a few! Moorish idol snack.
I wonder if we can see even more tomorrow?
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The wind has picked up!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats today
and they were packed to the brim!
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu with Shiori / Paula with Shohei
① Ulong Cliff / Channel
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① Ulong Cliff
② Siaes Corner
③ Siaes Corner
At Ulong Cliff today there was a cute little
baby spotted eagle ray! So cute! At the mouth
of the channel we got caught up in a huuuuuge
school of blackspot barracudas! Some bigeye
scads were being chased all around us by two
large gold spotted trevallies. To top if off,
there were about 30 moorish idols but everybody
was too distracted by the small school of black
fin barracudas (there? Why?) in the blue water!
At Grassland we had a wide party with soooooo
many whitetongue jacks! Also a large school of
sawtooth barracudas was hanging out right next
to us!
At Siaes Corner the current was mildly outgoing
and we had lots of fun with about 50 moorish
idols rushing all around us, their cute little
bannerheads wiggling in sync! After they left
two huuuuuge dogtooth tunas came to entertain us,
chasing the fusiliers and bigeye scads all around
us!
I can’t wait for tomorrow, see you then!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The good weather streak continues.
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats today.
BM1
Operator: Susie
Guide: Clayton
① Blue Corner
② Blue Holes
③ Chandelier Cave
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
Refresh: Paula
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ New Drop Off
It was a nice day in Ngemelis, or so I was told.
Tonton saw a huge dogtooth tuna at Blue Corner,
at least 40 or 50 lbs! For those of us thinking
metric,that’s like 22 kg!
During his second dive at Blue Hole the current
was so nice that his team got to drift all the
way to Blue Corner, thus covering two dive spots
in one! Nice!
At Ngermeaus there were lots of yellow-lined scads
today, happy to report that the school seems to
have recovered a bit. We also met a friendly hawksbill
and lots of blacktip reef sharks!
See you tomorrow!
Alii from Palau
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 01/30/2020
1st dive at Peleliu express with 20m
visibility. nice incoming current, but after 12mins
of dive time the current pick up from the out
going side. it push the school of giant trevally
toward us as we drift to the edge of the reef.
thats the good news, the bad news is when the
giant trevally left us, we were out in the blue and
could not make it back to the reef. making our
dive short, 20mins. its a fail dive.
2nd dive at Peleliu cut to the corner with 25m
visibility. a slow current at the entry point. lots of
school of fish around the cut. 2 big dog tooth tuna
showed up making the school of fish nervous and
keeping their distance from the dog tooth tuna.
half way to the corner the current started to
pick up and sharks started to swim closer to
the reef for a good close up shots. came to the
corner expecting to see the school of giant trevally
but no luck.
3rd dive at Peleliu cut again but this time we got
strong current, nice. this means that most fish
will be packed at the cut. now I know where to
look for the famous school of giant trevally,
piece of cake. as we slowly making our
way along the reef, my eye got caught on a large
shadow. as i lock my eyes on the target, i realize
its a hammer! i was so excited that i bang my tank
so loud that it turned away. oh man… my bad..
the sad thing too, that none of the divers got the
chance to see it. it doesnt count, but it my first
hammer head this year, 2020.
thank you for your time, Tonton signing out.
Happy Diving……
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was lovely today.
It’s a lovely weather streak.
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats.
BM2 – Charter
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Paula
① Blue Corner
② New Drop Off
③ Jellyfish Lake (just snorkeling obvs)
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu / Hiro / Shohei / Shiori
① German Channel
② Virgin Blue Hole
③ Blue Corner
Our BM2 Charter left early to get a private
Blue Corner experience and hell yes we did!
The current just changed from outgoing to
strong incoming and it was a party of grey
reef sharks and bigeye trevallies! So. Many.
Bigeye. Trevallies. I wanted to count but
I gave up because I am lazy. Here’s a picture.
Feel free to count:
The friendly Napoleon also came super close
because there was nobody else to hang out with.
Lucky us!
At New Drop Off the current was pretty weird
today, first strong incoming, but then after
about 2 minutes of hooking changed to outgoing.
It was weak outgoing though so we had fun with
small fish on the reef and, of course, the blue-
lined snappers!!
At German Channel there were seven mantas feeding!
Feeding – food – dinner time… enjoy your dinner
everyone! See you tomorrow!!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It was another mantastic sunny day!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats.
BM3
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Rusher / Paula
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Chandelier Cave
BM7
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu
① Siaes Corner
② Shark City
③ Grassland
I got pictures today! So, first some
impressions from Ulong Cliff:
There were also soooo many fusiliers being
chased around, creating beautiful “fish rivers”
as well as a large school of bigeye scads and
of course bigeye trevallies!
At Grassland we had a MANTASTIC experience.
First there were two mantas cleaning, a regular
one and a BLACK ONE! So cool! The black one disappeared
quite quickly and soon after also the other one left,
but then a different manta came back and stayed foreeeever.
Well, at least until our NDLs started nearing the critical
mark. Here are pictures because mantas are BAE.
In the meantime, Yu spotted dolphins UNDERWATER at
Siaes Corner! About 20 of them!
At Shark City there were loooots of blackfin barracudas
and giant trevallies! And at Grassland they got to enjoy
the company of presumably the same three friendly mantas
that we met during our second dive!
It was a mantastic day. I promise this is the last time
I use this word today.
Have a great evening and see you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Lovely weather today!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats today.
BM1
Operator: Susie
Guide: Paula with Shohei
① German Channel
② Blue Holes
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Yu
① Peleliu Express
② Peleliu Cut – Corner
③ Peleliu Cut – Corner
At German Channel the current had just
turned to outgoing but the visibility
was still at about 12 metres! First
we met a friendly fantail stringray resting
on the sand! Then we waited at the cleaning
station and just when we were about to
give up there came THREE CLEANING MANTAS!
Awesome. Also lots of baby grey reef sharks –
what more can you ask for? Nothing!
At Blue Holes the visibility was nice at about
25 metres and we saw many pyramid butterflyfish,
longfin bannerfish, a lionfish, electric flame
scallops – all the stars were there!
At Blue Corner we were lucky enough to enter
at just the right time and get the entire
hooking area to ourselves!! The current was
strong outgoing and there were lots of sharks
and two huge Spanish mackerels. After unhooking
the school of blackfin barracudas basically
waited for us on top of the reef, stealing the
attention from the garden eels. We then drifted
over the sandy area, admiring the bigeye trevallies,
whitetongue jacks and black snappers before ascending
on the incoming side buoy number 2!
In Peleliu it was a day of giant trevallies –
giant trevallies on every dive! Success quota 100%! Yay!
Can’t wait for tomorrooooow!
Alii from Palau.
How we all doing? hope all is fine.
This is Clayton doing dive blog for 01/26/20.
1st dive at Grass Land with 18m visibility.
nice outgoing current, perfect for my new
certified diver. nice and slow and relaxing dive.
most of the stars of this point were present, due
to our late entry we missed the manta ray. the
high light for this dive is the cold water fish
called the African Pompano or better known
as the thread fin trevally.
2nd dive at Siaes Corner with 22m visibility.
start our dive with a weak outgoing current
to almost no current, again perfect for my
new certified diver. nice and easy with
school of fish not knowing where to go, so
they were all over the drop off. making a
good impression for new diver to experience
under water beauty. the high light for this dive
was a male hawk’s bill turtle that came behind
our group and went between us. this turtle was
kinda strange that he swam toward the divers
that they have to give way for the turtle. my
impression was the turtle like looked at us and
like, whats up dude?, with that hang loose type
of look. this means that, this turtle trust divers
or haven’t been harass, so his cool with divers.
So i wish and hope that all divers respect all
aquatic life and give the right of way and space.
thank you for your time and see next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy diving……
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It’s still windy but the sun was great!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats today.
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Paula with Shohei
Intro: Hiro / Clayton
① Big Drop Off
② Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Channel
At Big Drop Off we had super nice visibility!
It was also the day of the moray eel. We spotted
a large one right after entering, and then
another super cute small yellow spotted one a bit
later one during our dive. There were also lots
of whitetip reef sharks and yellowspot emperors
as well as soooooo many anthias.
At Blue Corner the current was strong outgoing
so we entered from incoming buoy number 2 and
made our way across the reef where the fish
were hanging out. We saw lots of bigeye trevallies
and blackspot barracudas! There were also sooo
many turtles and sharks! After making our way to
the garden eels we drifted all the way to the corner
and over the reef edge where we got treated to
a school of blackfin barracudas!!!
Our Ulong team reported that the visibility at
Siaes Corner was amazing at over 30 metres! Also
the school of bigeye trevallies at Ulong Channel
was a true tornado!!
I wonder what we can see tomorrow?
Have a good night!
Alii from Palau.
how you all doing? hope all is good.
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 01/24/20.
1st dive at Fairy Land with 15m visibility.
mild outgoing current, nice for photo
opportunity. This point usually hard corals
and few soft corals. small fish and few big
fish. so on this dive we saw small school
of barracuda, few green sea turtle. not
so much on this dive but my team enjoyed
their freedom under water looking for
something interesting.
2nd dive at blue corner with 18m visibility.
Entered on the 1st buoy on the incoming
side, but after 10mins the current seems
coming from the outgoing side. cut across
the reef to the other side and the current
seems to slow down and kinda change
to incoming, oh no. just waste my time
coming here then it change. so i turned
back and went straight to the very tip
of the reef and found small school of
thread fin butterfly fish(around 50)
mixed with back saddle butter fly fish.
very nice, the only large schooling of
butterfly fish on the reef all the time is
the pyramid butterfly fish. once again
the friendly napoleon wrasse came and
safe the dive, for this crazy current.
3rd dive at German Channel with 10m
visibility. i know, you might be thinking
what can you see with this kind of visibility.
hold your horse, let me tell you what we saw.
entered on the south side of the channel, came
to the main cleaning station found 2 gray reef
shark taking turns on the station, having the
cleaner wrasse doing their work on the shark
teeth. as the shark left the station, i decided
to move, but just as i turned my back. a dive
tap on my shoulder, pointing toward the station.
as i turned around a manta ray was there, then
one showed up and another, wow, 3 manta, yeah!
after 4mins, the other 2 manta left and went toward
the surface, meaning feeding time.as the last manta
left the station, I knew exactly what to do. to make
a long story short, we saw total of 8 manta ray
feeding out in the blue water, nice! i rest my case.
thank you and see next time. Tonton signing out.
Happy Diving………
Alii from Palau.
how you all doing? hope all is good.
This is Clayton doing dive blog for 01/22/20.
1st dive at Ngemelis Wall with 15 to 20m
visibility. strong outgoing current, the main
focus for this dive was the school of black
fin snappers. and today was not that many
maybe less than thousand fish. the high
light for this dive was 6footer nurse shark
that was laying in cut on the reef. couldnt
get a good shot, cause its head was part
hidden. But i made sure that my divers
does not bother the shark. on this
dive was able to count total of 8 turtles.
2nd dive at blue corner with 20m visibility.
a strong outgoing current. but we made a
mistake and entered on the incoming side.
so i decided to go deep to check out the
Helfrich dart fish and decorated dart fish.
and we found lots of them, which is not
that common. made my way along the wall
hiding from the current to reach the tip
of the corner and stayed for awhile watching
fish activity and then the friendly napoleon
wrasse showed up and save the dive, thank you
fish!!
3rd dive at German Channel with 10m visibility.
the main focus for this dive was to observe the
manta ray feeding on plankton. so we spend
45mins watching the manta and i think there
were about 6 or 7 manta in all. but 3 of the
manta were small between 3 to 4feet, wing
span. so cute. during our safety stop, 2 big
giant trevally passed by with those mean
looking face, cheer up fish, we’re leaving.
thank you again and see you next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy diving.
Alii from Palau
how we all doing? hope all is good!
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 01/21/20
1st dive at west passage with 18m visibility.
outgoing current, was nice in the begining
but died out after 33mins of the dive. the high
lights for this dive was a big school of white
tounge jacks, i would say over thousand of
fish. the biggest school i have seen. toward
the end of our dive a school o black fin
barracuda showed up and pause for a few
minutes for some picture and then left, nice.
2nd dive at Plenty fish with 15m visibility.
this site is Blue Marlin original point. at this time
the current has change to incoming, so i started
this dive with the reef on the right, but the other
way is much better. the high light for this dive
was the school of unicorn fish, rainbow runner,
glow spot sea breams, barracuda and a black
blotched sting ray. this ray was at about 30m
deep, so as we descend down to get closer
the water got cold and the visibility was clear,
weird. most cold water i encounter were
murky.
3rd dive at Siaes Corner with 20m visibility.
a weak incoming current, but after 30mins
the current change. the high light for this
dive was 50 plus gray reef sharks hanging out
along the reef. but the best part was we were
the only diver and only boat at siaes corner.
yahoo! what a dive, priceless.
thank you for your time and see you next time.
Tonton signing out. happy diving.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Wow it’s getting windy out there…
Super sunny though!
Air temperature: 29C
Water temperature: 28C (26 at grassland)
We went out on one boat today.
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Hiro / Paula
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
BLACK MANTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
Need I say more? I think that pretty
much sums up our first dive at Grassland.
There was a huge black manta and it was
beautiful and kept doing its loops and
loops and loops and coming super close and
showing off its beautiful black belly and
it was just great. Period.
At Siaes Corner we had an absolute shark
party!! The current was nicely incoming and
after spotting two genormous dog tooth tunas
we hooked near the corner where we were treated
to soooo many sharks. I tried counting but it
was simply not possible. Too many baby sharks
and adult grey reef sharks. Amazing!
At Ulong Cliff unfortunately the current was
already outgoing so no channel for us BUT the
cliff was awesome! There were huge schools of
whitetongue jacks and big eye scads huddling
together as they were chased all over the cliff
by at least four huge gold spotted trevallies.
A very action loaded spectacle! Some grey reef
sharks seemed to want their piece of the cake too
and came up and close. We also got the cutest
little baby spotted eagle ray coming up super
close to us!!!
Today was awesome again. It’s been a series of
awesome days. We are so lucky! Thanks Palau!!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather keeps on being awesome.
You do you, weather.
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats.
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Tomi with Shohei / Hiro
① New Drop Off
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
BM7
Operator: Moon
Guide: Paula
Intro: Clayton
① Blue Holes
② Ngemelis Wall
③ Blue Corner
At Blue Holes the visibility was super
nice and we got treated to quite a show!
There was a really cute black blotched
stingray surprising us! It suddenly
appeared below us swimming along the bottom
towards the entrance of the hole, showing
off its black spots!
At Ngemelis Wall there were sooooooo many
blacktail snappers today! At first you couldn’t
even recognise the reef because of all the
fish, and then it seemed like the reef was just
moving! They all posed beautifully for the
cameras, creating balls of fish and streams of
fish! There were also lots and lots of green
sea turtles as well as two hawksbill turtles!
For our third dive, we had Blue Corner ALL TO
OURSEVLES! It was wonderful! The current also
cooperated nicely, we got a steady incoming
current! At first we got wrapped up in a curtain
of big eye trevallies, and then as we moved on
to the hooking area behind the cut, there were
more sharks circling than we could count! Also
two large giant trevallies and Spanish mackerels
were chasing the fusiliers around. To top it off,
we got the school of blackfin barracudas on top
of the reef as well as a school of blackspot
barracudas just before ascending to our safety stop.
See you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Great weather today!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats.
BM3
Operator: Moon
Guides: Clayton / Paula
① German Channel
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu with Shohei
OWC: Hiro
① German Channel
② Blue Holes
③ Blue Corner
It was a sharky kind of day!
And those are obviously the
best kind of days! At German
Channel there were at least 50
grey reef BABY SHARKS! Omg so cute!
We also got a MANTA! Yayyy! And all
that in beautiful visibility – full
success!
At New Drop Off the current changed
to incoming JUST before we entered
but thank god we noticed and adjusted
our entry point. There were sooo many
sharks at the hooking area! We also
got a large school of blackspot barracudas
and many many turtles, big and small!
At Blue Corner the current was strong
incoming and we got caught up in a
bigeye trevally storm! So. many.
Also so many sharks. And tunas. And
Spanish mackerels – a sad day for macro.
Today was great, I wonder what we can
see tomorrow?
Alii from Palau
How we all doing? hope all is fine.
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 01/17/2020
1st dive at ulong cliff all the way to Ulong
channel. nice slow incoming current with
20m visibility. on this dive was a feeding
action by blue fin trevally and yellow fin
trevally chasing the school of big eye
scad around the reef. what amazing about
this dive is the school of big eye scad came
between the divers, the hunters came so
close that freak me out, cause they could
ram you if they miss their target. on this
dive i was looking for the school of big
eye trevally, but i couldnt find them
out side the reef where they usually
hang out. so we continue our dive into
the channel and during our safety stop
i spot them on right side of the channel, nice.
2nd dive at Grass land with 20m visibility.
little bit incoming current making us going
against the current, but not that bad. so
just in the beginning of our dive there was
the school of one spot barracuda, then in the
middle of the sandy area was the school of
Chevron barracuda mixed with the school
of white tongue jacks. as i continue the dive,
on a particular table coral i notice a baby
blue tang surgeon fish which been a long time
since i see one many moons ago. at grass land
theres a rare butter fly fish that i only see on
this site called Merten’s butter fly. pls check
the fish book its very unique fish.
3rd dive at Siaes corner with 25m visibility.
good outgoing current with the wall on the
right. when i say good, you are able to use the
reef hook on this dive. while your hooked in
the current make the fish come in front of the
hooking point so you can watch fish activity
effortlessly. spend 15mins on the hooking,
then i decided to unhook and just finish
our dive with a drift. after 3mins, the current
change so quickly, oh man! not now!
its half moon, there’s nothing you can do
about it, just go with the flow. cant beat the
mother nature. on this dive we got to see
the first buffalo fish, and you know during
the cycle of the new moon this fish are starting
to show on the dive site. meaning that the
party is starting soon, so be ready for one
of world big orgy.
thank you for your time, all the time.
Tonton signing out. happy diving.
alii from Palau
how you all doing?hope all is good.
this Clayton doing dive blog for 01/16/20.
1st dive at German channel with 20m
visibility. its half moon today so we got
slow incoming current. perfect for my beginner
diver and first time in Palau. again we got to
see those school of baby gray reef sharks that
still staying at the channel but im sure when
they are mature enough they will leave the
channel and explore new sites, good luck sharkys.
we missed the manta because we run out of air,
but they enjoyed that dive of 41mins.
2nd dive at blue hole with 25m visibility.
another good condition at the hole. just
us and one other dive shop. the sun was in perfect
position that you can see the suns ray coming
down from the openings, nice. as we exit the
the hole a great barracuda was waiting for us
outside the hole.
3rd dive at blue corner with 22m visibility.
again its half moon so the current is unpredictable.
weak outgoing current, perfect for my divers. after
15mins it change to in coming. we so all the stars
of blue corner except the school of barracuda, but
i knew where they were. i didnt want to bring my
beginner diver out into the blue. again they had
a great time at blue corner where they almost
saw everything they expected to see.
thank you again and see you next time.
Tonton signing out. happy diving.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was absolutely lovely today!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats.
BM3
Operator: Moon
Guides: Yu / Hiro
① Siaes Corner
② Siaes Tail
③ Grassland
BM7
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Paula
① Aquarium
② Grassland
At Aquarium the visibility today was
gorgeous and the current just right!
We entered with the reef on our left
and slowly made our way towards the
reef. As we approached the corner,
we saw 11 grey reef sharks circling
at around 27 metres depth – yay for
Nitrox! They were surrounded by sooo
many fusiliers, dark-banded and red-
bellied, creating a super colourful
stream of fish over the reef edge!
There were also a looooot of twin
spot snappers as well as of course
our yellow friends, the yellowfin
goatfish! To top it off, a large
school of blackspot barracudas as
well as some longfin batfish!
Great dive!!!
At Grassland the visibility was also
great! There was no manta at the cleaning
station but we were treated to quite the
spectacle right next to it! There was a
school of whitetongue jacks being chased
around viciously by gold spotted trevallies
and grey reef sharks. Right next to them,
seemingly unbothered, a school of sawtooth
barracudas was circling on the sand. Awesome!
Then after greeting the garden eels we
continued along the coral and suddenly got
surprised by a manta!! It swam towards us,
did a beautiful somersault and then left –
thanks Manta!
At Siaes Corner Yu’s and Hiro’s teams saw
lots of orangespine surgeonfish and many
grey reef sharks!!
A beautiful day today, let’s hope for great
weather tomorrow too!
Alii from Palau.
how you all doing? hope all is good!
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 01/14/20
1st dive at German channel with 21m
visibility. slow outgoing current, 11mins
to our dive, we saw the school of baby
gray reef shark around 20 plus.
continue toward the main cleaning
station, stayed for 10mins waiting for
the manta ray but no show. while
we were waiting couple of gray reef
sharks came and used the cleaning
station, nice. my team didn’t see the
manta and i know it not my fault.
German Channel today was full packed,
next time.
2nd dive at New drop off with 20m
visibility. start our dive with a weak
outgoing current but after 20mins
the current picked up, making the school
of fish to come together where we are
hooked in, nice. along the dive we got
to see that rare butterfly fish called
patch eye. and also another rare animal
we saw was a octopus being chase by
lyre tail grouper.
3rd dive at Blue corner with 18m
visibility, again weak outgoing current but
after 18mins the current picked up. on this
dive we got to see 2 dog tooth tuna,
i would say about 40 to 50lbs, plus 2
great barracuda. the high lights for this
dive was the school of orange spine
surgeon fish around 50 plus, swiming
back and forth on the reef. this fish will
get more as the moon comes to new moon.
so i will let you know later on, so keep in touch
with blue marlin dive blog.
thank you for your time and see you next time.
Tonton signing out, happy diving.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It was super hot again today and
I got sunburnt again. At least it
wasn’t my face. Yay for that.
Air temperature: 32C (scalding)
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats today.
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Rusher / Paula
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Chandelier Cave
BM6
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① Ulong Cliff
② Siaes Tunnel
③ Siaes Corner
The pressure is on for this blog because
apparently some people read it every day!
Are there more of you out there? I must know!
Anyways, all our teams ventured out to Ulong
today and the weather was just perfect for it.
At Grassland the visibility was wonderful at
about 15 metres and the sunshine made it look
even clearer. Immediately after descending we
spotted manta action at the cleaning station
and rushed there as fast as we could (at a safe,
controlled pace of course to make sure we wouldn’t
disturb our manta friends). There were two large
mantas cleaning at the station and although one
of them left soon after, the other one just hung
out and kept cleaning for ages, even as other
groups gathered to watch. When we decided to move
on not to neglect the other fish, we also found
a longnose filefish! So cute!
At Siaes Corner there was no current when we first
checked, but after entering from the outgoing side
the current picked up slightly just as we arrived
at the hooking area. We didn’t need our hooks but
the current was perfect just to hover and watch
the grey reef sharks and black snappers as well as
a huge dogtooth tuna. There were also lots of large
trevallies today, a group of about 6 bluefin trevallies
were hunting the fusiliers along with two large
gold spotted trevallies. We also saw a school of
Pacific double-saddled butterfly fish!
At Siaes Tunnel Tomi’s and Hiro’s teams were treated
to a tornado of bigeye trevallies as well as lots of
decorated dartfish!
Let’s hope for more friendly fish tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was beautiful today and
I got sunburnt despite SPF 50+. Yay.
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats today.
BM3
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① Blue Holes
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Rusher / Paula
Assistant: Saku (best. day. ever!)
① Blue Holes
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Yu
① Blue Holes
② Blue Corner
The visibility at Blue Holes was beautiful
today and all the Blue Marlin teams gathered
there at the same time! Blue Marlin Party!
My go-to electric flame scallops have reduced
two only ONE (omg) so pray for the little electric
flame scallop please. There was also a super
cute lionfish. It seems like the fire dartfish
grew their family because now there are no longer
two large ones but around 5 very small ones.
At New Drop Off the current was quite a challenge
so we pondered and pondered and eventually decided
to go in from the outgoing side – good choice!
The current picked up slowly and we got treated
to a moray eel, lots of big green sea turtles and,
as our highlight, a school of approximately 200
orangespine surgeonfish!! They were being hunted
by two grey reef sharks and moving back and forth
frantically, super fun to watch!
At Blue Corner our current luck wasn’t quite as
good – slow incoming current when we entered but
then it changed to outgoing after about 15 minutes –
oh nooooo! We still got treated to a bigeye trevally
festival, though, as they decided to take exactly
the same course across the reef as we did, to make
it to the outgoing side. The Napoleon was looking
quite silly today and giving us the weird side eye
but still came up close for some pictures.
The decorated dartfish is also still there!
That’s it from me today, see you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The wind has finally slowed down!
It was a little grey in the morning
but cleared up just in time for lunch!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats today.
BM3
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① Grassland
② Ulong Cliff
③ Siaes Corner
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Rusher / Paula
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
BM7
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Yu
Assistant: Saku
① Siaes Tunnel
② Aquarium
③ Ulong Channel
Ulong was surprisingly empty today,
not many boats! Yay! Both BM3 and BM6
dove Ulong Cliff during outgoing current
but we saw lots of blackspot barracudas,
grey reef sharks and gold spotted trevallies
chasing the fusiliers around the cliff!
At Grassland there was no manta today but
lots of whitetongue jacks and blackspot
barracudas! We also found a spotted shrimpgoby,
a signalfin goby and lots of fire dartfish!
Sometimes it’s nice to focus on the little
things in life!
At Siaes Corner we were treated to quite a
spectacle when we saw four gold spotted
trevallies, a big dog tooth tuna and a few
bluefin trevallies all chase around a big
school of big eye scads! Some grey reef sharks
and whitetip reef sharks tried to get a piece
of the action too! There was also a large
Napoleon wrasse just hanging around nearby as
though to watch the whole thing.
At Siaes Tunnel Yu found a Helfrich’s dartfish
and lots of decorated dartfish! Dartfish party!
Let’s hope for lots of sunshine tomorrow!
See you then!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The sun shone bright for JAL today!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats today.
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Rusher / Paula
① Ngemelis Wall
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
BM6
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① Big Drop Off
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
BM7
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Yu
① Shark City
② Peleliu Cut
③ Peleliu Corner
Our Ngemelis teams started the day off
calmly with Big Drop Off and Ngemelis Wall,
respectively. We saw looooots of turtles
so it definitely qualifies as a good dive.
Who doesn’t love turtles?
At Blue Corner we entered with basically
zero current but still managed to see all
the stars! Big eye trevallies, sharks galore,
blackspot barracudas – and lots of divers!
There were still a feeeeeew moorish idols
left but also surprisingly many butterfly
fish! They look even cuter when they swim
in sync!
At German Channel we waited and waited for
just the right current and BAM – it was a
manta train / feeding festival! Amaaaazing!
We saw 10 mantas feeding at the same time
but in total there must have been even more!
Mantas left, right and center, literally!
We didn’t even know where to look! Mantas
everywhere!
Yu’s team first enjoyed the red snapper
spawning and then headed to Peleliu where
they saw a FOUR METER TIGER SHARK! Whaaaaaaatt!
So jealous!!
All in all a great day! I can’t wait for tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Lovely weather today!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats today.
BM1
Operator: Gonzo
Guide: Yu
① Blue Corner
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Hiro / Paula
① Blue Corner
② New Drop Off
③ German Channel
What a great dive day today!
At Blue Corner the current was very
weak incoming so we entered with the
reef on our right. A huuuuge school of
giant trevallies basically followed us
from the elevated hooking area all the
way to the hooking area behind the cut,
creating what seemed like a wall of
trevallies right in front of us! There
were also lots of grey reef sharks, three
huuuuuge dogtooth tunas and a Spanish
mackerel!
At New Drop Off the current was slightly
outgoing and it was a turtle fest! At
one point we had a hawksbill turtle and
a green sea turtle basically right next
to each other for perfect comparison. We
also found lots of blackspot barracudas
mingling with some whitetongue jacks!
At German Channel we waited until the
current was incoming and then set off
on our search for feeding mantas! And
we were rewarded! First we saw two
feeding mantas and then later Yu’s team
counted EIGHT! They’re so pretty when
they swim around in loops, pushing their
tummies out into the blue!
While we were still searching, we returned
to the sandy bottom at one point to get
caught up in a huuuuge school of whitetongue
jacks only then to be hit by what seemed
like a solid wall of dark-banded fusiliers!
So cool!
I can’t wait for tomorrow, see you then!
alii from Palau
How you all doing? hope all is good!
This is clayton doing dive blog for 01/08/2020.
1st dive at Grass Land with 15m visibility.
again still strong wind here in Palau and
outgoing current in the morning so it
carry the murky water out to the drop
off. our dive at Grass land was not that
bad, we got to see a rare fish that usually
comes to the island during December and
January when the water temprature change
by 0ne degree. this fish is called thread fin
trevally, cold water fish. toward the end of
our dive close to the entry point, we saw
a manta ray at the cleaning station, but
this manta only did 2 rounds on the station
then left. thank you Mr. Manta….
2nd dive at Siaes Corner with 20m visibility.
entered at the incoming side with a weak
current but after 6mins the current change.
but we were able to reach other side of the
reef with no problem, current was weak too.
the high light for this dive was feeding action
of yellow fin trevally and dog tooth tuna, plus
few gray reef sharks chasing the school of
big eye scad. another high light was tons
of gray reef sharks hanging out on the
corner of the reef, they were alot that
why I say tons!
3rd dive at Ulong Channel with 10m visibility.
I didnt expect the visibility to be good, because
of the condition. but I really expect a nice
incoming current on this dive. but it turns out
very weak and upsetting. something wrong
with the mother nature nowadays.
the high light for this dive was the school
of baby gray reef sharks just inside the
entrance of the channel. they were about
2ft in length and i couldn’t get the exact
count due to the visibility but i estimate
to be around 20 plus sharks. and again
we saw another thread fin trevally inside the
channel. well that all for me. thank you for
your precious time and see you next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy diving!…
alii from Palau.
How is all doing? still have the new years
flu? hope all is well.
This Clayton doing dive blog for 01/07/2020.
Still windy down here in paradise and choppy.
1st dive at Ngemelis wall with 12m visibility.
entered with the reef on the left with outgoing
current. the current this time was a little bit
fast that i almost run out of reef. 14mins to
our dive we get to see our first turtle. it
does not take that long to see a turtle at
this point. so this dive i counted 8 total
turtles. the high light for this dive was
9 huge buffalo fish that i spot them
fish. and the thing is, its off season for
the buffalo fish to around at Ngemelis wall.
2nd dive at blue hole with 20m visibility.
today we still had big waves breaking on
the reef and so i expect the visibility to be
bad and it turns out, not that bad, it was
good. and what makes it more better is,
we were the only dive shop in the hole that
time, wow amazing! Its busy time for Palau.
so again we had a good time inside Blue hole
for our self, nothing beats that. having that
as one of the high light, here is the high light
for me. a huge, bad ass giant trevally that was
stalking the small school of Moorish Idol on the
reef. yes it was that big, bigger than the Napoleon
of blue corner.
3rd dive at Blue Corner with 20m visibility.
check the current twice and decide to enter
on the incoming side. as we made our entry and
just 3mins in, the current seems to come from
the other side, shit. so i started to cross the reef
to the other side, and as i reach the middle of
the reef, the current stopped and start to come
from my behind, shit. I realize its 2 days after
half moon, so the current is unpredictable.
so I went to the very corner of the reef and
found lots of schooling of fish hanging out there.
lucky me, I almost screw up this dive. so again
all the blue corner stars were present and they
save the day. Cheers!
thank you for your time and i hope you had
fun reading this dive blog. happy diving.
Tonton signing out.
Alii and happy new year to all.
how is all doing? hope all is good.
this is Clayton doing dive blog
for 01/06/2020. this is my first
dive blog for this year and my
first dive of the year 2020.
1st dive at German Channel with
a poor visibility, its like less than 10m.
reason for a poor visibility is strong
wind from east north east, so on the
shallow water is very choppy that
stir up and the current bring it down
to the channel. we didn’t see the
manta ray so i will not say anymore
about this dive, it was bad.
2nd dive at New Drop off with 20m
visibility. entered on the incoming
side but after 12mins the current
change to outgoing.the high light
for this dive was a small school
of moorish idols, about 50 of them
came up from the deep and behind
the school was 12 gray reef sharks
fallowing the moorish idols.
3rd dive at blue corner with 20m
visibility. slow outgoing current, perfect
for my low experience divers. after
16mins of dive time the current kinda
change a bit and stop and then continue
outgoing, but weak. all the stars were
present at blue corner including the
new star that showed up. I meant
the Moorish Idol. during this time of
the year they start to mate and they
come in big school. they also attract
the gray reef sharks and other predator
fish like the giant trevally and the red
bass. so this event will go on for about
a month. the only question is, the timing
and the face of the moon.
thank you for your time and see you
next time. Tonton signing out.
Happy diving.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Today was slightly rougher than yesterday
but still very nice conditions!
Air temperature: 28C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on two boats today.
BM1
Operator: Moon
Guide: Yu
① New Drop Off
② Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Tomi / Paula
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
Grassland was amaaaaaaazing today!
We entered with nice visibility of
about 15 metres! Just as we were
gathering below the mooring buoy,
a manta swam super closely past us!!
Off to a great start we continued
towards the sandy area as the cleaning
station was presently not occupied,
and watched lots of whitetongue jacks
and blackspot barracudas! Then we saw
the manta out in the blue, turning and
swimming back towards the cleaning station!
So off we were! We made our way to the
cleaning station, accompanied by a beautiful
school of whitetongue jacks mingling with
the blackspot barracudas, creating an
awesome image all by itself already, but
then those two schools swam right to the
cleaning station where they were joined
by a large school of sawtooth barracudas.
Picture this: Sawtooth barracudas, blackspot
barracudas, whitetongue jacks and a shark
all scrambling about the cleaning station
and then BAM – A MANTA JOINED THE FUN!
Also, no other divers. What more can you
ask for?? We watched it clean for as long
as our NDLs allowed and came up super excited!
At Siaes Corner the current was slowly
outgoing but there were sooo many sharks at
the hooking area! We also saw about 70 moorish
idols swimming down the wall just before the
big cut. There was also a genormous dogtooth
tuna super close to us as well as many gold
spotted trevallies.
At Ulong Cliff we got to see bigeye trevallies,
blackspot barracudas, a huge baitball of fusiliers,
bigeye scads being chased by gold spotted trevallies
as well as friendly whitetip and grey reef sharks!
A great day! Have a lovely evening!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
What a wonderful day today. Sunny,
(almost) calm seas, and very few boats.
Jackpot.
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Moon
Guide: Tomi
① Ulong Cliff
② Siaes Corner
③ Siaes Corner
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Hiro / Paula
① Blue Holes
② German Channel
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Rusher
① German Channel
② Blue Holes
Ngemelis was amaaaaaaaaazing today! First off,
the visibility was breathtaking! Over 35 metres
at Blue Holes!! And even better – very very few
boats only! Yay! And none of them at Blue Holes!
Double yay! So basically we had the best of times
and the great barracuda and electric flame scallop
just made it even better.
At German Channel we got treated to the most beautiful
manta show! Again there were no other teams – miracle –
and we secured the prime seats at the Koror side
cleaning station. Soon after we waited for a little
bit, three beaaaauuutiful mantas appeared and cleaned
and cleaned and cleaned away happily, until we had
to ascend because our dive computers were getting
angry with us. What a treat!!
At Blue Corner the current was nice incoming and
eeeeverybody was there, but by everybody I mean the
fish and not other dive teams, woop woooooop! We found
the decorated dartfish, bigeye tevallies, blackfin
barracudas, blackspot barracudas, Napoleon wrasses,
blue-lined snappers, a dog tooth tuna, a Spanish
mackerel, lots of gold spotted trevallies… we didn’t
even know where to look! Beautiful!
At Siaes Corner Tomi’s team got treated to almost
100 sharks at the corner with a nice outgoing current!
There was also a small school of moorish idols!
Oh I almost forgot to mention that we also found a large
pod of dolphins next to New Drop Off!! That could explain
the wonderful day – how can a day that starts with lots
of dolphins spraying water on you possibly go badly?
It cannot! Let’s hope for more dolphins tomorrow!
See you then!
Happy new year.
It is Hiro.
Operator Moon
Guide Tominaga Yu
①German channel
②Blue corner
③Blue corner
In the German channel, six manta rays were feeding.
Great! !
There were about 200 Moorish idols in the blue corner!
It is very beautiful!
Operator Stacy
Guide Rusher Hiro
①Ulong Cliff
②Sias corner
③Grassland
Temperature 30 ℃
Water temperature 28 ℃
Bigeye scads was chased by Yellowspotted trevally at Ulong Cliff,
There was impressive.
I was able to meet the baby of the Spotted eagle ray.
The Sias Corner is a shark party!
You can see about 50 sharks at once!
Grassland
I saw a group of Black spot barracuda!
Let’s enjoy tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It’s still very windy!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 27C
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Hiro
① Ulong Cliff
② Siaes Corner
BM3
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Rusher / Paula
① German Channel
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Yu
① German Channel
② Blue Holes / Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
Today was the day of the Indian mackerels,
trevallies and moorish idols! Hiro claims he
saw at least 150 Indian mackerels singing their
way through Ulong! A smaller school was also
entertaining our customers while waiting for
mantas at the cleaning station at German
Channel. We saw two large mantas cleaning, yay!
There was also a baby manta swimming super close
to us while we were checking out a friendly
octopus! As we were waiting at the cleaning station,
a fantail stingray decided to take center stage
and do a gentle loop around us!
At Blue Holes we had some macro fun with the electric
flame scallop and a super cute flatworm right next
to it. There were also two lionfish! After leaving
the hole and swimming along the wall, we also spotted
the cutest little nudibranch! Today’s team was a group
of macro lovers so everybody got excited!
Speaking of macro, at Blue Corner everybody enjoyed
watching the friendly decorated dartfish. It must
have gotten used to the attention by now because it
just lets you takes pictures for ages. Just as we
arrived at the cut on the incoming side, the current
picked up so we could hook and enjoy some sharks as
well as the feeding spectacle of the gold spotted
trevallies chasing the fusiliers! At the corner there
were about 150 moorish idols!!!!
Have a nice evening!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Frohes neues Jahr!
Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!
The weather held up for the first half
of the first day of the new year but
then turned utterly dreadful as soon
as we were back at the shop. Rain galore!
Air temperature: 30C (colder in the rain)
Water temperature: 27C (time for the long suit)
We went out on three boats today! Busyyyyy!
BM3
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Rusher
① German Channel
② Virgin Blue Hole
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Yu / Paula / Saku (Assistant)
① Blue Corner
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Hiro
① Blue Corner
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
It’s been busy recently at German Channel as the
high season is in full swing so there were lots of
boats today as well. However, our teams were lucky
to observe two mantas!
At Blue Corner the current tricked everyone as it
looked like outgoing but then changed to incoming
after about 15 minutes. However, the bigeye trevallies
were creating a beautiful little tornado next to the
reef edge and the napoleon was super friendly today.
It even tried to nibble on our customer.
At New Drop Off the visibility was murky but we saw
looooooots of black spot barracudas and found a baby
Morrison’s dragonet! Yaaaaaay! It was so cute.
When we entered Blue Corner again for our third dive
the current had stopped completely so we decided on
the incoming side to have fun with the decorated
dartfish! It was also a trevally fest – bigeye
trevallies, a school of blue trevallies, two giant
trevallies (literally), five orange spotted trevallies
as well as three huge gold spotted trevallies chasing
the fusiliers around!
A great start to the new year! Have a nice evening!
This blog post was brought to you by pizza. Pizza is life.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
OMG last blog post of the year!!
Of the decade even!
A historic moment. I cannot.
The wind is blowing us into 2020
with full speed.
Air temperature: 28C
Water temperature: 27C (yup it’s cold)
We went out on three boats today because why not.
BM3
Operator: Moon
Guides: Tomi / Rusher
① Grassland
② Siaes Tunnel
③ Ulong Channel
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Yu / Paula / Saku (Assistant)
① German Channel
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Hiro
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
At German Channel the visibility was at about 13 metres
but that was hard to tell because there were sooo
many divers. Divers everywhere. However, we still
got to see lots of mantas so it was a successful
dive! Yay!!
At Grassland the visibility was slightly better
and we saw lots of barracudas – blackspot barracudas
and sawtooth barracudas galore! Also three large
gold spotted trevallies chasing the dark-banded and
red-bellied fusiliers all over the place!
The current at Siaes Corner was veeeeeery slow incoming
and we drifted over the reef at a super relased pace.
There were lots of bigeye scads being chased by bluefin
trevallies! Also lots of fusiliers being attacked by
gold spotted trevallies. It’s hunting season!
To top it off we got lots of grey reef sharks, including
some cute baby ones!
It’s been a great year with lots of diving, fish, fun,
sweat, rain, wind, blue, mantas, sharks… I could go on
forever but now if you will excuse us, it is time to get
ready for 2020! Guten Rutsch, as we say in German!!
See you next year!!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It’s still super windy!
Air temperature: 29C
Water temperature: 27C (time to layer up!)
We went out on three boats today.
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Tomi / Rusher
① Big Drop Off
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Humio
Guides: Yu / Paula
① Big Drop Off
② Ngemelis Wall / Blue Corner
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Hiro
① Blue Holes
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
The wind is super strong so we’re limited to the
points protected by Ngemelis Island but those are
awesome points, so no problem! At Big Drop Off we
found lots of twinspot snappers schooling at the
bottom (yay for Nitrox)! There were also sooo many
squarespot anthias and peach anthias! Since tiny
things equal cute things we also had fun with the
candycane dwarf gobies and whip coral gobies.
At Ngemelis Wall we saw lots of green sea turtles
including a huuuuuuuuuge one. And now wait for it –
we got A MANTA AT NGEMELIS WALL! Amaaaaazing!!
It passed us from behind and then swam super slowly
as though giving us time to marvel at its elegance.
In my opinion finding a manta in a place where there
usually are none beats watching mantas at their
cleaning station! Yay! There was also a school of
Indian mackerels chasing around and feeding, donning
their signature choir vibe. Every single time I see
Indian mackerels I imagine them singing. You should
give it a try. It’s hilarious.
In the meantime, the other team at Blue Corner explored
the macro hole and found lots of decorated dartfish
and Helfrich’s dartfish!
At New Drop Off there were loooots of fusilier
damselfish spawning! Hiro also spotted an adorable
nudibranch!
At Blue Corner we saw a huuuuuuge school of bigeye
trevallies as well as a huuuuuuuuuge school of black
spot barracudas. There were also lots of longnose
emperors chasing around lots of small fish together
with some napoleons, creating quite the commotion.
We also came across a Spanish mackerel, two giant
trevallies, three gold spotted trevallies and a small
school of blue trevallies. Trevally time!
Have a lovely evening!
alii from Palau
how you all doing? hope all is good.
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 12/29/2019
1st dive at Fairy land with 20m visibility.
slow outgoing current. this point is a hard
corals and small fish. but today we got to see
a ornet eagle ray and a spotted eagle ray.
along the dive there was a small school of
black fin barracuda, 2 unit of giant trevally
and few green sea turtle.
2nd dive at New Drop off with 20m
visibility. weak incoming current making
all the fish scattered over the reef. but
the high light for this dive is the napoleon
wrasse. there were many young wrasse
and 4 adults , that they were mating.
3rd dive at blue corner with 17m
visibility. nice incoming current that
push most of the fish to the 13m hooking
area. along the dive we saw dog tooth tuna
yellow fin trevally and spanish mackerel.
try to look for the barracuda but couldnt
find them.
thank you again for your time.
tonton signing out. happy diving.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Wow it’s gotten windy! Sunny without rain though!
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats.
BM3
Operator: Humio
Guides: Tomi / Clayton
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Channel
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu / Hiro / Paula
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
At Grassland Tomi’s and Clayton’s teams found two
mantas cleaning! Yay! The visibility was great today
at around 25 metres! There were also lots of blackspot
and sawtooth barracudas as well as schools of bigeye
scads and whitetongue jacks!
At Ulong Cliff we had fun with the bigeye trevallies and
at least five super large gold spotted trevallies
chasing bigeye scads and whitetongue jacks all over the
cliff! Super dynamic! There was also a beautiful school
of circular spadefish!
At Siaes Corner we saw lots of baby sharks and adult
grey reef sharks as well as a super large school of
blackspot barracudas and also – yaaay – blackfin barracudas!
A great day at Ulong today! Have a nice evening!
Alii from Palau
this is clayton doing dive blog for 12/27/2019
1st dive at Ngemelis wall with 20m visibility.
nice outgoing current, the high light for
this dive was a big eagle ray that was at about
25m just hanging out. during my safety stop
a big school of convict surgeon fish was feeding
on top of the reef and i kinda estimate their
number to be around 500 plus,of fish. first
time i see this fish at this point.
2nd dive at New drop off with 20m
visibility. slow incoming current and sometime
stop and change a bit. so this kind of current
make the fish go crazy cause they swim
back and ford trying to figure out the current.
the high light for this dive was a eye-patch
butter fly fish that usualy stay in deep
water but this time we saw it at 13m.
3rd dive at blue corner with 18m visibility.
outgoing current, all the stars were present
and a big great barracuda plus few of yellow
fin trevally cruising along the reef. this dive was
kind a relaxing. it was nice and easy, what can
i say. well folks that all for me now see you next
time. Tonton signing out. happy diving.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Super nice weather today for Boxing Day!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on two boats today.
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Tomi with Paula
① Peleliu Express
② Peleliu Cut – Corner
③ Peleliu Cut
BM6
Operator: Clayton
Guides: Yu / Hiro
① German Channel
② Blue Holes
③ Blue Corner
Peleliu Tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime!
We did three dives in rather easygoing
current today and it was a trevally kind
of day! We saw a big school of bluefin
trevallies! They weren’t huddled together
but rather all over the place so it seemed
like an ocean full of bluefin trevallies.
Right next to them we found a large school
of Heller’s barracudas!
We also got to see a huuuuuuuge school of
giant trevallies! Yay! They came super close
and were all around us!
On the surface we were surprised by lots of
super friendly dolphins! They were playing in
the surf of the boat and jumping and spraying
us with water. So cute! Here’s a picture of
a dolphin’s butt. You are welcome.
At German Channel the other teams saw three
mantas cleaning! Nice Christmas treat!
At Blue Corner we also found a decorated dartfish
at surprisingly shallow depth! I hope it’ll still
be there tomorrow!!
Have a lovely evening!
Greetings from the Island of Palau.
Merry Christmas to all and a Happy
New Year. this Clayton doing dive
blog for 12/25/2019.
1st dive at Grass Land with 18m visibility.
what a 1st dive for a Christmas day. 3 manta
ray at the cleaning station, one black manta,
one cute baby manta and one adult manta.
other than that we got yellow fin trevally and.
a dog tooth tuna chasing the school of fusiliers
on the reef attracting gray reef shark to join
the chase. what a dive at grass land!
2nd dive at Sieas Corner with 20m visibility.
a slow incoming current perfect for photo
aportunity. along the dive, 3 big buffalo fish
on top of the reef. just before the hooking
point, 4 huge dog tooth tuna appeared along
with smaller ones. i guess they were over 50lbs,
bad ass looking fish. as we arrived at the hooking
point I saw schools of gray reef sharks off the
distance, but as they came closer, it was more
than i expected. among this school of sharks,
i counted 24 small gray reef sharks and i
think their about 4-5 years old. toward the
end of our dive out in the blue before our
safety stop a small school of black fin
barracuda was waiting for us, thank
you fish.
3rd dive at Ulong cliff to Ulong channel
with 15m visibility. This is my favorite spot,
why, cause this is one of the world classic
drift dive. just for your info, you can see
90 species of hard corals inside the channel.
when you hit the right current you can have
the ride of your life time. anyway, along
our dive we got to see the school of
big eye trevally, one spot barracuda,
big eye scad and square tail grouper.
another nice drift dive at Ulong channel
that we finish our dive with total of
55mins dive time, yeah baby.
well,thats all for me now. thank you
again and see you next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy diving.
FROHE WEIHNACHTEN! It’s Paula!
The above means Merry Christmas in German!
Are you all feeling very christmasy? We sure are!
The weather was not christmasy at all but very
lovely today – sunshine galore!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats today.
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu / Hiro
Intro: Paula
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Humio
Guide: Tomi
① Siaes Corner
② Grassland
③ Ulong Channel
At German Channel there were two mantas cleaning! Yay!
And at Blue Corner the current was strong incoming and
super fun.
Tomi’s team had a great dive at Siaes Corner with soo
many dogtooth tunas and a large Spanish mackerel chasing
the fusiliers around!
The visibility at Grassland wasn’t great but all the fish
were congregating for the christmas festivities around the
fragile cardinalfish rock!
At Ulong Channel the current was nice and incoming and
the team drifted through the channel for a relaxed dive!
Here are some pictures from Ngermeaus today!
Merry Christmas everyone!!
Good evening. It is Hiro.
Palau is still sunny today.
Operator Fumio
Guide Tomi Hiro
① German channel
② New drop off
③ Blue corner
Temperature 32 ° C
Water temperature 29 ° C
I saw two manta rays on the German channel!
It seemed comfortable after cleaning!
I was able to observe it slowly because I saw it on a charter!
The transparency of the new drop-off was good.
Transparency was over 35m.
Pyhmid butterflyfish and blueback fusilier.
It was beautiful!
I met a lot of turtles!
The blue corner was also good transparency.
There were also a lot of Big eyes trevally and gray leaf sharks.
Napoleon also came to play nearby.
The barracuda herd was incredible!
Let’s enjoy tomorrow!
alii from Palau
how you all doing? hope all is merry.
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 12/22/2019
1st dive at Peleliu Cut with 20m visibility.
a strong incoming current from express
toward the corner pushing most of the
fish to gather at the cut. so as we entered
there was a fish party going on from big eye
trevally, unicorn fish surgeon fish, blue fin
trevally, fusiliers, and many more the list
can go on. it was a fantastic dive for a
first time diver to go Peleliu.
2nd dive we did the cut again all the way
to the corner. this time as we entered the
same point, the current has slow down a bit.
so this time the fish came up on top of the
reef like Christmas decoration. as we started
drifting along the reef towards the corner
more shark showed up more than the first
dive. at the corner the famous school
of the giant trevally was present hanging
at the back current. jack pot!
3rd dive at Peleliu Express with 20m
visibility. entered at the long express with
mild current, but as we get to the middle
of the reef the current seems to speed up.
out of no where a huge feather tail sting ray
came up from the deep that looks like it’s
also enjoying this drift along the reef.
somehow this dive had alot of gray reef
shark. so I started counting, but as I reach
30 count, even more shark appeared that
makes me miss counted the sharks. to bad
we are running out of bottom time that
i could not recount again. I estimate over
50 gray reef sharks. wow!
thank you again and see you next time.
Tonton signing out. Happy diving….
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It was sunny today but the wind almost
blew us away.
Air temperature: 30C
Water temperature: 28C
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Clayton
① Blue Corner
② Blue Holes
③ New Drop Off
BM2 – Charter
Operator: Konzo
Guide: Yu
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
BM6
Operator: Humio
Guides: Tomi / Paula
Intro: Hiro
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
At Ulong Cliff today the visibility was
at about 15 metres. Tomi’s team saw a
baby spotted eagle ray at the mouth of
the channel! There were also soooo many
big eye trevallies and grey reef sharks
at the cliff!
At Grassland we got a mantaaaaaa! We arrived
at the buoy and checked for a manta while
snorkelling – and YAY! Manta!! But we still
had to wait a little bit longer for our surface
interval, fingers crossed that the manta wouldn’t
leave. It didn’t! 🙂 We still got completely
undisturbed cleaning time with the manta doing
loops and somersaults for us! There were also
lots of blackspot barracudas!
At Siaes Corner one team had fun with the little
things in life, like baby flame angelfish and
fire dartfish as well as a super chill hawksbill
turtle that was scratching its tummy on the coral.
So cute! The other team fought its way against the
changed current all the way to the hooking area
outgoing side where there were two bluefin trevallies
and about 10 gold spotted trevallies chasing the
fusiliers around, creating quite the spectacle!!
I wonder what we’ll see tomorrow?
Alii from Palau
Happy Holidays to all, only
4 more days to Christmas, so be good
for goodness sake.
this Clayton doing dive blog for 12/20/19.
1st dive at Ngemelis Wall with a excellent
visibility, this is the best ever. This dive point
is known for 2 things. 1: the school of black tail
snapper that comes here days before new moon.
so when i say school, they can go over a thousand
of fish. 2: the turtles that hang out on this reef.
so, on a good day you can count over 10 turtles
and that’s what happen today. very nice!
2nd dive at Blue Corner with 25m visibility.
we had a incoming current and a strong one,
too strong! it’s good that it brings all kinds of
fish together but, its a hard dive for divers
with big camera. on this dive we were able
to see couple of spanish mackerel, dog tooth
tuna and yellow fin trevally hunting their
prey. very exciting actions.
3rd dive at New Drop Off with 25m visibility.
a outgoing current. started with a weak current
but after 12mins of dive time the current started
to pick up. hooked in for 10mins watching fish
activity and then drift with the current along
the reef finding the school of one spot barracuda,
blue lined snappers, glow spot sea breams and
big eye sea breams. another fun and nice dive
at new drop off and the bonus was the octopus
that was not shy that it stayed on top of a rock
allowing the divers to taking its picture. Nice!
well folks that it for me, thank you for your
time, Tonton signing out.
Happy Diving…..
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Sadly I cannot make today’s weather sound nice.
It was rainy and windy and we got caught up
in some white outs. But the good news is, the
water was warm! 🙂
Air temperature: 26C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Paula
① Ngemelis Wall
② German Channel
③ Big Drop Off
BM2 – Charter
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
BM6
Operator: Humio
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① German Channel
② German Channel
③ Blue Corner
③ Chandelier Cave
At Ngemelis Wall the visibility was at about
20 metres and we had a nice follow current
for most of our dive. We saw a huge dogtooth
tuna and lots of fusiliers being chased around
near the buoy! There were also a lot of grey
reef sharks today and a few white tips! Of
course we also met lots of hawksbill and green
sea turtles!
At German Channel the current was still incoming
when we entered and then stopped. There was a
big school of bigeye scads today and looooots of
blackspot barracudas! We also saw two mantas!
And Tomi’s team saw a super cute cuttlefish!
At Big Drop Off we had some macro fun with gobies!
Candycane dwarf gobies, Randall’s shrimp goby and
whip coral gobies galore! There was also a huuuuuge
lobster! Last but not least of course the anthias
were beautiful – peach anthias, Bartlett’s anthias
and square spot anthias as well as purple queens
and yellow stripe anthias!
More diving tomorroooooooow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It stayed dry all day today but the
wind is still on the stronger side.
Air temperature: 29C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on one boat.
BM1
Operator: Susie
Guides: Hiro / Paula
① Ulong Cliff
② Aquarium
③ Siaes Corner
It’s been a long time since we’ve been to
Ulong so we decided today would be the day.
Unfortunately, the visibility was pretty
poor at all the dive sites. At Ulong Cliff
we saw the large school of bigeye trevallies,
blackspot barracudas and lots of cute small
stuff as well.
At Aquarium the visibility was very poor
BUT we still got to enjoy lots of yellowfin
goatfish and twin spot snappers as well as
fire dartfish, arceye hawkfish and black side
hawkfish!
At Siaes Corner we had the whoooooole dive
site to ourselves and caught a super nice
outgoing current – not to fast but just right!
There were soooooooo many sharks at the hooking
area. Also four or five super large bluefin
trevallies were chasing around the fusiliers,
creating a lot of action right in front of us!
To top it off, an enormous dogtooth tuna joined
the hunting fun and passed by super close to us
a couple of times! Best dive of the day, I’d say!
Have a great evening and see you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather looked scary in the morning
but after we came up from our first dive
it was all sunny!
Air temperature: 29C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats today.
BM3
Operator: Susie
Guides: Yu / Paula
① German Channel
② Blue Corner / Blue Hole
③ Hafa Adai Wreck
BM7
Operator: Humio
Guide: Tomi
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
At German Channel the current was still
incoming when we arrived and the visibility
nice. We saw three mantas cleaning at the
Koror side cleaning station and although
the tide started to go out and the visibility
dropped during the dive, we got super close
up manta action!
At Blue Corner the current was suuuuuper weak
incoming and we had all the time in the world
to explore lots of big and small fish! We also
found a super cute nembrotha kurbayana nudi!!!
Soooo adorable!
The Ulong team saw two mantas cleaning at the
cleaning station at Grassland for a total of
thirty minutes!!!
At Siaes Corner the current was very weak
outgoing and they found twelve dogtooth tunas!!!
Let’s hope the weather keeps on improving!!!
See you tomorrow!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was pretty awful today but
it got sunny just in time for lunch and
we enjoyed some nice time on the beach!
Air temperature: 28C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on three boats today.
BM2 – Snorkelling Charter
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Hiro
BM3
Operator: Susie
Guides: Yu / Paula
① Ngemelis Wall
② Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Humio
Guide: Tomi
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ New Drop Off
Both the early morning team and the snorkelling
charter left early to see some feeding mantas!
Success! Hiro took this picture while skindiving:
At Ngemelis Wall we met lots of friendly turtles
and dartfish! There were also three big bumphead
parrotfish suddenly chasing past us.
At Blue Corner the current was strong outgoing at
first but then mellowed down a little as we reached
the hooking area. There were lots of grey reef
sharks and blackspot barracudas, as well as a huge
dogtooth tuna. The blackfin barracudas were hanging
out in the blue water just by the corner.
Here are some more pictures of the feeding mantas,
thank you Mr. Watanabe!
I hope we get some more Manta action tomorrow,
we’ll let you know!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It was rainy and windy today but that
doesn’t matter when you get to dive in
Palau’s beautiful ocean… 🙂
Air temperature: 27C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on three boats today.
BM1
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Paula
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
BM2 – Snorkelling Charter
Operator: Clayton
Guide: Hiro
BM6
Operator: Humio
Guides: Tomi / Yu
① Siaes Tunnel
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
At German Channel the current had already
switched to outgoing but we still got some
great Manta action! There were four of them
cleaning at the Koror side cleaning station
and we basically didn’t have to move throughout
the whole dive. When we finally decided to move
back in the direction of the buoys for our safety
stop a little Manta was swimming right at us!
At Blue Corner the current had stopped and we
had the opportunity to explore the whole corner
and go wherever we pleased! We saw a huge school
of bigeye trevallies and lots of Heller’s
barracudas. The Napoleon also came up close today.
Somebody might have been feeding the blue-lined
snappers because they were all over us and tried
to nibble on our fingers… suspicious! I’ve never
seen them that curious.
At Ulong Cliff Tomi’s team spotted a lemon shark!
And Hiro found lots of blue-girdled angelfish while
snorkelling at Ulong Channel!
I hope it’ll be sunny again tomorrow, see you then!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Today also the weather was beautiful but
the wind has picked up slightly. It’s east
wind though, so no problem! 🙂
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats today.
BM1
Operator: Humio
Guide: Paula
① Blue Holes
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi / Hiro
① Blue Holes / Blue Corner
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
At Blue Holes we first had some fun spotting
lots of square spot anthias before swimming
through the arch and meeting a HUUUUUUUUUUGE
great barracuda! It was just standing there
motionless, not even remotely bothered by us
coming close and taking pictures. Then again,
if I was that size and had teeth like that,
I probably wouldn’t be intimidated by anything
either… We also spotted a baby regal angelfish
which was super cute and a pretty nudibranch!
At Blue Corner we entered with weak outgoing
current and then, as the current stopped near
the hooking area, made our way across the reef
to the incoming side. The bigeye trevallies were
beauuuutiful today! Since we had the whole corner
to ourselves during that dive, the friendly
Napoleon also stayed close by the whole time!
We ended the dive by drifting towards the blue-
lined snappers, humpback snappers and yellowspot
emperors and then found a large school of blackfin
barracudas in the blue water! Great dive!
Here’s a picture of the blackfin barracudas, courtesy
of Mr Ichikawa. Thank you!
At German Channel the visibility was at about
15 metres and we spotted four manta rays, one of them
swimming super close above our heads, one cleaning
and two of them cruising out in the blue! There
were also lots of grey reef sharks and a very
pretty school of bigeye scads! Lastly one of our
customers had some fun practising how to deploy
the safety float from under water! This picture was
also taken by Mr. Ichikawa.
I wonder what we can see tomorrow?
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Lovely weather today with lots of dolphins!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats today.
BM6
Operator: Humio
Guides: Tomi / Paula
① German Channel
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu
AOW: Clayton
① Shark City
② Grassland
Today was another MANTASTIC day!
At German Channel the visibility was only at
about 12 metres but we had the whole dive site
to ourselves and thus lots of space to watch
the mantas clean! There were about four of them
in total with up to two of them cleaning at the
same time!
At Grassland the other team also watched two
mantas who were cleaning the whole time while
the AOW team was doing their underwater navigation
dive!!
At New Drop Off the visibility was nice and the
current was steadily outgoing. We hooked in twice
and saw loooots of grey reef sharks, some of them
definitely pregnant! Hoping for some baby sharks
soon… There were also lots of red-bellied fusiliers,
pyramid butterfly fish, blue-lined snappers and
yellowspot emperors!! After our dive, Tomi spotted
a SILKY SHARK from the surface!!
At Blue Corner the current was outgoing at first but
very suddenly changed to incoming as soon as we reached
the hooking area. We still managed to see lots of
sharks, bigeye trevallies and turtles, though, so another
good dive!!
Also, an update on the turtle mystery:
After going through the pictures and consulting carefully,
we have come to the conclusion that it was A LOGGERHEAD!!
Yay!!!
I wonder what we can see tomorrow??
alii from Palau
how you all doing, hope all is good.
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 12/10/2019.
1st dive at Grass Land with 15m visibility,
nice outgoing current. Most of the schooling
fish were there but the high light for this
dive was a manta ray that showed up after
20mins of our dive. The reason why i say
the high light because it was first time
for one of my diver to see a manta ray.
she just got her open water and today
we were doing the advance open water.
2nd dive at Siaes Corner with 20m
visibility. nice incoming current, lots
of schooling fusiliers, black snappers, red
snappers and plus 10 gray reef sharks.
i almost forgot about the 2 hawk’s bill
turtle. end our dive in the blue, hoping
for the school of the black fin barracuda
but no luck, maybe next time.
3rd dive at Ulong Channel with 15m
visibility and a weak incoming current.
It’s getting weird this current, why? I
don’t know. It’s 2 days before full moon
so the current should be strong at the
channel. But any way it was not that bad.
we saw the school of big eye trevally in
huge number and they were doing the tornado
formation, nice! not only that, in front of the
channel entrance we also saw the big school
of the red bass or the red snapper. and just
for your information it’s the spawning time
for this fish. we continue our dive into
the channel again with a very weak current.
but we were able to reach and pass the
giant cabbage coral and end our dive
with 50mins dive time.
once again than you for your time, every
time and all the time, see you next time.
TonTon signing out. Happy diving…..
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
Our prayers have been heard, the weather
was awesome again!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats today.
BM3
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Yu
Intro: Rusher
OWC: Clayton
① Blue Corner
② New Drop Off
③ German Channel
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Hiro / Paula
① Ngemelis Wall
② Blue Corner
③ German Channel
At Ngemelis Wall we met soooo many
turtles! At least 10 or 20! One of them, –
we’re still trying to find out if it was a
genormous hawksbill turtle or maybe even
a LOGGERHEAD – tried to take a munch out of
our customer’s wide angle lense! It seemed
very hungry! We’ll check the pictures and let
you know what it was tomorrow! We also found
two scrawled filefish and lots of cute anemonefish!
At Blue Corner the current stopped and
we entered from the incoming side. We
found the school of bigeye trevallies on
the drop off and took some pictures. Then
we made our way across the reef towards the
garden eels and then back towards the corner –
when there’s no current, any route is possible!
We also spotted the friendly Napoleon and
the schools of humpback snappers, blue-lined
snappers and yellowspot emperors. Very
easygoing dive!
At German Channel Yu’s team went to look for
the feeding mantas whilst our team had some
fun with the cleaning mantas. Yu found eight
mantas feeding, full on success!
We stayed at the Koror side cleaning station
where about four mantas were cleaning and
swimming around, including a very small one
which was probably still a teenager. To top
it off we got to see a dogtooth tuna, a Spanish
mackerel, tons of baby grey reef sharks and schools
of bigeye scads and reef trevallies!
Today was awesome, see you tomorrow!!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was very indecisive today…
First rain, then sun, then heavy rain.
Air temperature: 28C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats.
BM6
Operator: Susie
Guides: Tomi / Paula
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Yu
① Shark City
② Siaes Corner
③ Ulong Cliff
At Shark City there were soooooo many red
snappers today! Meanwhile in Grassland we
saw lots of blackspot barracudas and tiny
little baby black snappers!
At Siaes Corner we were treated to a show
of bigeye scads being chased around by
four large bluefin trevallies! It was great!
We also saw lots of sharks and a little
baby flame angelfish.
At Ulong Cliff it was all about the big eye
trevallies! They were circling sooooooooooo
beautifully! At one point we basically got
caught in the middle of them and they were
circling all around us!
Yu also found a small spotted eagle ray and
Tomi swears he saw a manta coming out of the
channel while waiting for the boat!
I hope it’ll be sunny again tomorrow…
See you then!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
What a beautiful day today! Crystal clear
waters, sunny skies and dolphins!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats today.
BM6
Operator: Humio
Guides: Tomi / Paula with Mizuho
① Blue Holes
② German Channel
③ Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Yu
① Peleliu Cut
② Peleliu Express
③ Peleliu Cut – Corner
Today was THE BEST DAY! At Blue Holes the
visibility was super nice and due to the sunny
weather the cave was lit up beautifully by
sparkly sun rays! The cute electric flame scallop
also performed for us!
The highlight of the day was our dive at German
Channel! We timed our entry so that no other
teams were in the water and omg WHAT A DIVE!
The visibility was super nice at about 20 metres
and the incoming current was quite weak but that
enabled us to comfortably hang out at the Koror
side cleaning station and watch THREE MANTAS CLEANING
FOR 50 MINUTES! They were not at all bothered by
us and just kept turning and turning and coming so
close to us I could swear their bellies were touching
the tips of our hair! There were two super large
ones and a tiny one, probably still young.
The. Best. Dive. Ever. I have no other words.
Check this out:
Thank you Ms Morita!!!!
At Blue Corner we entered with a weak incoming curent
which changed to an outgoing current after about three
minutes. We slowly made our way to the hooking area on
the outgoing side and watched lots of bigeye trevallies
on the way there. We also had some up and close action
with the Napoleon! Having the whole Blue Corner to
ourselves he must have realised there wasn’t anyone else
to hang out with. We also found the blackfin barracudas
as well as a school of blackspot barracudas and looooots
of cute turtles! Great dive!
In Peleliu our divers encountered a large school of
great trevallies and Stacy swears he saw a shark as large
as 4 metres from the boat. As to what kind of shark –
we don’t know. He was super excited though!
Have a great evening and see you tomorrow!!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was super nice today and
the ocean calm and shiny like a mirror!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats today.
BM3
Operator: Humio
Guides: Hiro / Paula
① Ulong Cliff
② Siaes Corner
③ Aquarium
BM7
Operator: Stacy
Guide: Tomi with Mizuho
① Grassland
② Siaes Corner
At Ulong Cliff we got treated to quite the
show as lots of bigeye scads were being chased
around the cliff by a leatherback and it looked
like some grey reef sharks were joining in the
fun! We also saw lots of bigeye trevallies just
next to the mouth of the channel!
At Grassland a large manta passed by our group
as they were checking out some fragile cardinalfish!
At Siaes Corner we observed lots of sharks circling
around the hooking area on the incoming side. After
being drifted out into the blue Hiro also spotted
a school of blackfin barracudas!
At Aquarium we entered with the reef on our right
side and thanks to the current there were lots of
sharks as well! We also saw a large school of
blackspot barracudas and a baby Shepard’s angelfish!
Also loooooots of twinspot barracudas and yellowfin
goatfish!
I hope the weather is the same tomorrow!
Alii from Palau Island.
how you all doing? hope all is good!
this is Clayton doing dive blog for 12/5/2019.
1t dive at German Channel with 7 to 15m
visibility. why is that? its a day after half
moon so the current is unpredictable.
so just 6mins to our dive a huge manta
ray showed up glyding smoothly passing
us. as it disappeared out into the the blue,
we continue our dive and we meet another
one hovering on the cleaning station. after
few minutes the manta went away. as we
about to leave it showed up again behind
us. thank you Mr. Manta.
2nd dive at Blue Corner with 20m
visibility. nice outgoing current that
brings a lot of schooling reef fish along
the reef as we drift toward the hooking
point. just for your information this
dive was not relaxing cause of the big
wave that create a bit strong surge
under water. on the hooking point lots
of gray reef sharks were hanging out too.
after few minutes i decided to unhook
because of the surge, it was not that
fun anymore. drift with the current out
into the blue and found a small school
of barracuda, when i say small, its
only 20 of them in the class. Lol..。
3rd dive again at Blue Corner
with the same visibility and outgoing
current, and don’t forget about the
surge. after 20mins of our dive i
notice the current is changing, so
i quickly start my way to the other
side of the reef, just to catch the
incoming current before it picks
up too strong. along the way
we meet the school of big eye
trevally, some turtles, black snappers
and the friendly napoleon wrasse.
as i reach the other side of the reef
one of my diver has gone low on air.
just good timing for us to end our dive
by drifting with the current out into
the blue to find the same small
school of barracuda, how nice.
thats all for me now and thank you
for your time and see you next time.
happy holidays and happy diving.
TonTon signing out.
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
The weather was grim today… it started
grey in the morning and ended grey too.
We got rained on. But under water it was
nice and snug and warm!
Air temperature: 28C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats.
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Yu / Hiro
① Ulong Cliff
② Grassland
③ Siaes Corner
BM7
Operator: Humio
Guide: Paula with Mizuho
① Ulong Cliff
② Aquarium
All teams started the day with a dive at
Ulong Cliff! There were lots of beautiful
fusiliers at the mouth of the channel being
chased by gold spotted and bluefin trevallies!
They created the most gorgeous blue shiny
river all around us! There were also a lot of
bigeye scads being chased around as well as
four grey reef sharks always circling in the
corner on the right side of the mouth of
the channel. We also found the large school
of bigeye trevallies and took loooooots of
pictures!
At Grassland there were lots of blackspot
barracudas as well as sawtooth barracudas!
We also found a big school of bigeye scads!
At Aquarium the current was nice and we approached
with the reef on our left! There were lots of
baby sharks and black snappers! The star of
the dive was a huuuuuuuuuuuuge school of
circular batfish! One of our customers said she
counted at least 300! We also got treated to another
beautiful fusiliers-being-chased-by-trevallies show!
On top of the reef we found lots of yellowfin goatfish
and soooooooo many twinspot snappers! They were basically
covering the whole reef! One of our customers also spotted
an adorable little white nudibranch! Perfect dive!!
At Siaes Corner the current was very weak outgoing but
there were lots of baby sharks at the hooking area!
I hope it’s gonna be sunny tomorrow, now time for a hot
chocolate!
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
We had really nice weather today and
the wind has settled down too!
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C
We went out on two boats.
BM1
Operator: Humio
Guide: Paula
① Blue Corner
② Blue Corner
BM7
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu with Mizuho
① German Channel
② Blue Corner
③ Blue Holes
German Channnel was experiencing a slow but steady
incoming current and so Yu’s team went looking
for mantas! The search was worth it because they
were rewarded with three mantas! They were cleaning
at the Koror side cleaning station! Great start to
the day!
At the same time, my team had Blue Corner all to
ourselves for the first dive! No other team in the
water! Bliss!!! We entered with a very very weak
incoming current from buoy no. 2 but the current
changed to very weak outgoing just when we reached
the blue-lined snappers! To be honest, though, the
swell was more tiring than the current. We saw lots
of bigeye trevallies and a huge school of blackspot
barracudas next to the reef out in the blue! Sooo
many! The napoleon was super friendly seeing as there
was nobody else to hang out with and kept coming
back for more attention and pictures! We finished
our near perfect dive off with a school of blackfin
barracudas in the blue! Yayy!!!
At the time of the second dive the current had picked
up and was now steadily outgoing. There were sooooo
many sharks circling in front of the hooking area,
but unfortunately also a lot of divers. Hardly any
space to hook! 😀 The current was super fun though
and after unhooking we also watched the garden eels
for a while and spotted a super cute green sea turtle.
The current got stronger during the dive and the school
of blackfin barracudas seemed to escape on top of the
reef so we got to seee them before we headed out to the
blue. Also a super fun dive! The visibility was beautiful
both times today, almost 30 metres!!
I hope the wind stays this calm…. fingers crossed!
See you tomorrow!
Alii! This is Mizuho from Palau.
Today,s weather is all day sunny!!
Air temperature:30C
Water temperature:29C
We went out on one boat today.
BM7
Operator: FUMIO
Guide:YU / CRAYTON with MIZUHO
①Ulong Clif
②Glass Land
③Siaes Corner
The first divesite was Ulong Clif
with 17m visibility.
There was confortable outgoing current
for driftdiving.
We got to see the huge school of
big eye trevallies on the cliff!!
There are many kind of basslets
on the reef edge.
It was very beautiful!!
The second divesite was Glass Land
with 15m visibility.
Current was weak outgoing current.
We saw Spotted Garden eel
on the sand area.
And we observed Red bellied fusilier and
many kind of butterflyfish !!
The third divesite was Siaes corner
with 20m visibility.
There was nice outgoing current
for fooking.
so we could saw many kind of fish school
foe example …
Gray reef shark,Blackspot barracuda,Black snapper
and so on!!
One of Guest could find out Guineafowl Puffer.
Thank you so much!!
Thank you for taking time to read all of this blog!!
Good luck!!!
Mizuho
Otsukarechan! It’s Paula!
It was still windy today but much better
than the last few days! Tomorrow might
even be smooth, who knows?
Air temperature: 31C
Water temperature: 29C (but 26C at Grassland lol)
We went out on two boats today.
BM6
Operator: Stacy
Guides: Clayton / Paula
① Grassland
② Butterfly Park
BM7
Operator: Susie
Guide: Yu
① Ngemelis Coral Garden
② New Drop Off
③ Blue Corner
Manta Manta Mantaaaaaaaaaa!! That’s right, again
we got a Manta at Grassland! It seems manta season
is in full swing again! The visibility was a little
poor but as we approached the cleaning station we
saw a huge black shadow hovering over it and immediately
made our way to the sandy bottom to catch some good
seats to the show! Today it wasn’t a black manta but
a huuuuuuge “normal” one. It kept doing its loops around
the cleaning station completely unfazed by the divers
watching and when we left after 10 minutes of manta
admiration due to our NDLs getting shorter and our
body temperatures lower (crazy thermocline at 26 degrees brrrr),
the manta was still not done cleaning!
At our original point Butterfly Park the visibility
was super nice and the sun shone beautifully on the
table corals! We found a lot of yellowfin goatfish,
and lots of baby black snappers! Speaking of babies, there
was also a school of juvenile yellowspot emperors huddled
together around a table coral and of course lots of baby
butterfly fish! We also spotted many redeye gobies today
as well as a group of longnose filefish! Because of all the
small, colourful fish and all the baby fish Mr Naito suggested
we re-name the dive site “Toy Box”. What do you think?
Yu’s team ventured out to Blue Corner and was treated to
a spectacular current change! The current switched from quite
strong outgoing to strong incoming! All the fish fled onto
the sandy area and then towards the incoming side of the reef!
“Like a river”, as Yu said! 🙂
Let’s hope the wind continues to slow down! Enjoy your evening!
I hope we’ll have a beautiful sunset today as well!