Darrell Seale · Scuba Diving / Dive trips / Palau

Diving Palau

Sharks on the walls, mantas in the channels and WWII wrecks in the harbor. A week on the Palau Aggressor II, January 2017.

Jan 2017when
Liveaboardone week
Walls + wrecksand channels

Palau is on almost every serious diver’s list, and it earns it. Strong currents sweep nutrients past steep walls and through the channels between the Rock Islands, which brings in sharks, mantas and big schools of fish. Add WWII wrecks, caverns and healthy reefs, and very few places pack so much variety into such a small area.

I spent the first week of January 2017 diving Palau on the Palau Aggressor II. A liveaboard is the easiest way to dive Palau well: the boat moves between sites so you can do four or more dives a day, timed to the tides, without long speedboat rides back to Koror.

The days had a rhythm. The dive deck woke up early for a 6:30 a.m. briefing at Blue Corner, and a typical day after that read like the whiteboard in the salon: Ulong Channel at 7:15, Siaes Tunnel at 10:15, lunch, Sandy Paradise at 1:30, Ulong Coral Garden at 4:30, then dinner and a movie. The crew drew every site on the board before each dive, with the current direction and where to hook in.

Many Palau dives are drifts. At Blue Corner divers clip onto the edge of the reef with a reef hook, add a little air to their BCD, and hang in the current while gray reef sharks patrol the drop-off a few feet away. It is a great place to practice drift diving and buoyancy, and a good reason to log a few current dives before you go.

Watch: Diving Palau

Three minutes from the trip: hawksbill turtles, mantas at German Channel, gray reef sharks and a big school of fish.

Big animals

German Channel was cut through the reef in the early 1900s to link the lagoon to the open ocean, and today it is one of Palau’s best-known manta cleaning stations. We had mantas circling overhead, and gray reef sharks patrolling the walls at Blue Corner. On the reef itself, soldierfish hung in the overhangs and hawksbill turtles fed on the coral, paying almost no attention to divers.

Manta ray in blue water, Palau — Manta ray. Mantas often circle back for another pass.

Manta ray silhouette against the blue with small fish, Palau — Silhouette. A manta passing over the channel.

Gray reef sharks patrolling a Palau wall — Gray reef sharks. Patrolling the wall.

Gray reef shark in blue water, Palau — Up close. A gray reef shark in the blue.

School of red soldierfish over a Palau reef — Soldierfish. Big eyes, bright red.

Hawksbill turtle on a coral reef in Palau — Hawksbill turtle. Feeding on the reef.

Caverns and WWII wrecks

At Blue Holes, openings in the top of the reef drop into a large cavern, and the light coming down through them is the shot everyone wants. The first dive of the trip was the Helmet Wreck in Malakal Harbor, a Japanese WWII cargo ship sunk in March 1944 that still holds stacks of helmets fused together by corrosion, plus bottles, dishes, engine parts and other cargo. It sits in fairly shallow, calm water, which makes it a good first dive and a great place to slow down and look closely. Look, but never touch: old munitions on Palau’s wrecks can still be dangerous.

Blue light streaming into the Blue Holes cavern, Palau — Blue Holes. Light pouring into the cavern.

Looking up from inside the Blue Holes cavern toward the opening, Palau — Looking up. One of the openings from below.

Coral-covered hull of a WWII wreck in Palau — WWII wreck. Coral-covered steel.

Diver seen through the open frames of a WWII wreck, Palau — Through the frames. A diver on the far side of the wreck.

Bowls, a bottle and other cargo on a WWII wreck in Palau — Cargo. Dishes and bottles still in the hold.

Encrusted artifact on a WWII wreck in Palau — Artifacts. Still on the wreck after more than 70 years.

Reef life

Between the big-animal dives, the reefs were full of smaller things: soft corals in pink and purple, sea fans spread across the current, clownfish in their anemones, bannerfish in pairs, giant clams wedged into the coral, and a leaf scorpionfish that is easy to swim right past.

Pink soft coral on a Palau reef — Soft coral. Color on the walls.

Large red sea fan on a Palau wall — Sea fan. Spread across the current.

Clownfish in an anemone with a white base, Palau — Clownfish. At home in its anemone.

Bannerfish swimming over coral in Palau — Bannerfish. Usually seen in pairs or small groups.

Giant clam with a wavy blue mantle, Palau — Giant clam. That wavy blue mantle.

Yellow leaf scorpionfish on a Palau reef — Leaf scorpionfish. Easy to miss.

On land: the Rock Islands and the WWII battlefield on Peleliu →

Good to know

Best known forBlue Corner, German Channel, Blue Holes, Ulong Channel
StyleMostly drift diving; reef hooks at Blue Corner
Who it suitsDivers comfortable in current; Advanced Open Water and a few drift dives recommended
GatewayKoror, Palau
My tripPalau Aggressor II, January 2017

Want to dive Palau with a group? Dive Outdoors in Redding, California runs two full-moon liveaboard trips in Palau: 29 Nov–6 Dec 2027 and 8–15 Dec 2027.

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