Day
2
- Palau
What a great day of diving! We started the morning with a drift dive at Big Drop Off. The reef started at around 15 feet and was a shear wall as far as the eye could see. It was a drift dive and the current carried us on a leisurely pace down the wall. The coral is in good condition, which is always nice to see and there is abundant sea life. The only disappointing aspect of Palau to this point is the shark population – more on that later.
After Big Drop Off, we tied in to another Neco Marine boat that was moored in a protected area and we had lunch. While they aren’t Lindsey Dogs, the lunches have been quite good (and large). Scott and I both had the Chicken Bento Box which consisted of chicken, rice, fruit and vegetables. We’ll take a picture tomorrow…it isn’t anything like you’d expect a dive boat lunch to be, really.
We then made our way to Blue Corner. We had tried earlier in the morning, however the seas were a bit rough. It had calmed down a little, so we decided to go for it. Blue Corner is one of the more popular sites in Palau. You start on the reef and drift down the wall till you hit a ledge at around 55 feet. Most of the coral is dead so you either hold on to the coral or, if conditions allow, hook in with a reef hook. There was a little too much surge apparently for the reef hooks so we held on to the ledge and watched the show. There were schooling jacks, large schooling silversides (check to see that that’s what these were), a ton of other tropical fish, a lion fish, many turtles and a number of large wrasse.
Blue Corner was, at one point, notorious for its sharks. The main reason most people would go was to watch the white tip and black tip sharks swim by. We were disappointed to see probably only a dozen sharks the entire time. And they were very small (probably no more than 4 ft). The decreasing shark population is no doubt a result of the Japanese shark fishing that is allowed to happen in Palau. It is sadly happening in many areas (particularly where the government’s main source of income comes only from ecotourism) and the effect it is having on the ecosystem is staggering.
Blue Corner was, and still is, a great dive. It is just very sad to see the decimation of an entire species – for really no reason at all. The sharks are only caught for their fins – their carcasses are thrown back in the water. And research is starting to find out that the shark fin isn’t really as good for you as it was once believed.
After Blue Corner, we made
out way back towards the harbor but not before we stopped at Jellyfish Lake.
The lake is a saltwater lake that is completely protected from the ocean. In
it are hundreds of thousands of jellyfish. Because they are the only thing
in the lake, they have no predators. Therefore they have evolved to a point
where their stingers are almost non-existent. They still have some venom,
however only about 1 and 10,000 people are actually affected by it. So, with
this information we climbed up a hill (and then down) and found ourselves at
the lake. We jumped in and snorkeled with the jellies. It was a very cool
and extremely relaxing experience. It is a surreal feeling to be swimming
among them – probably because it is somewhat counterintuitive. According to
our guide there are 4 different Jellyfish Lakes in Palau where the jellies
have no stinging abilities – and about 12 where they do. It’s good to know
which one you are going to ; - ). All in all, it was a fantastic way to end
the day.
Jellyfish Lake Video
