Palau trip report - June 2013

[ballast]

Please don't let my trip report put you off visiting Palau. Despite everything, it remains a spectacular destination. I would just encourage anyone who observes blatant disregard for the marine environment to speak up. Talk to the dive operation owners directly. Send emails to Harry Fritz, Palau's Minister of Tourism mnret@palaugov.net, Theo Isamu, Director Bureau of Marine Resources bmr@palaunet.com and Joseph Aitaro, Director Bureau of Protected Areas Network pan@palaunet.com. They need to hear the feedback over and over, until they're willing to require more strenuous enforcement from ALL dive operators.

 

[farsidefan1]

I witnessed the same thing. We were waiting at the cleaning station for mantas and the cloud of white fins would come down and stand on the cleaning site inspite of every one in our group being told to stay well back from the station. White fins are very popular among the Japanese divers. Sorry but I have to call it as I saw it. I don't know if they were given a decent briefing as I was not with their group. I been there with Sam's and the Aggressor. I know that it sounds like an over generalization and certainly I have seen it from all ethnic groups but in Palau it was clearly these groups that were the biggest problem I observed. I have no ax to grind with Asians, my son in law is Japanese. I go to Japan twice a yr to hang out with the family there but to deny this is a problem is putting your head in the sand. The tour leaders from these countries need to speak up. LOUDLY. Sam's or the Aggressor would ground divers for doing that.

 

[Mike]

Boats were often full (12-14 divers) and two divemasters. Unfortunately, divers with widely ranging skill levels are often combined on the same boats, but more of that later.

1. The Divers: This was really my one and only gripe - and it's a fairly major one. Palau is currently experiencing a boom in tourism from Asia (China, Taiwan, Korea & Japan). More and more of these new tourists are divers who arrive with the requisite certifications but, based on my own personal observations, questionable skills, and most alarmingly, little or no regard for the marine environment. While Fish 'n Fins caters more to western clients, they do see their fair share of Asian divers as well. We repeatedly witnessed divers with little or no buoyancy skills crashing into, or worse, standing on live coral. Octos and gauges dangling unsecured, getting caught in the coral. The staff treat this with resigned frustration. They try to enforce basic environmental safeguards, but ultimately acquiesce to the fact that these divers would simply take their business to the guy across the street who won't be as strict. Ultimately, the Palau government needs to take more forceful action to require stricter enforcement of the marine environment standards before the reefs are completely destroyed.

Beyond the issue of the divers basically sucking. How do they effect your actual dives and diving with Fish n' Fins? Does the mixture of inexperienced divers on the boat manipulate your dives in regard to bottom times and dive sites or is the mixture of divers not a factor?

 

[Lopez116]

It is very upsetting for me to hear about divers that have no regard and/or respect for the marine environment and stand on live coral. I have logged over 600 dives (mostly California coast and the Caribbean). I've also dove Hawaii and French Polynesia. I am now looking to dive Fiji, Micronesia, Philippines, or Indonesia. This trip report makes me think twice about going to Palau. I'm not sure I could enjoy a dive there while watching other divers destroying the reef.

You took the words out of my mouth. I was always looking forward to diving Palau one day...now I'm thinking it would be painful to watch


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

 

[ballast]

Beyond the issue of the divers basically sucking. How do they effect your actual dives and diving with Fish n' Fins? Does the mixture of inexperienced divers on the boat manipulate your dives in regard to bottom times and dive sites or is the mixture of divers not a factor?

Actually, they handled this reasonably well. There were always two divemasters on every dive. One divemaster would ascend with the first few to run low on air, and the second would stay with the rest of the group. Dives were mostly timed to 55 minutes. As far as dive sites, inexperience did not seem to adversely affect choice. We dove all the premier sites (Blue Corner, Ulong Channel, Big Drop-off and my personal favorite, New Drop-off) regardless of who was on the boat. We didn't experience any truly raging current - not like the Maldives where almost every dive was insane ripping current.

 

[redgym]

Interesting. We dove the Maldives last year (FS Explorer and from both resorts) and we had insane ripping current on one dive, and ripping current on another. Otherwise, I don't recall current being an issue. We have actually hesitated diving Palau because of the current. We finally took the plunge and are leaving for Palau in a couple of weeks.

 

[randomtask111]

We went to Palau in March last year with Sam's, and fortunately, we only dove with experienced divers (probably 500+ dives) in the group. We did not see / get close to divers who had little/no respect to the marine life, so the experience was not ruined. I would hate to think Asian tourists (esp those from China) are treating Palau the same way they're treating their landside country... there's probably more spitting in China than everywhere else in the world combined.

 

[jiji]

1. Staying there: We stayed at Palau Pacific Resort, which is hands down the nicest resort in Palau, but it is also the most expensive as well. Service is outstanding, and the food and accommodations were what you would expect from a major luxury resort. I was warned away from Palau Royal Resort, the other major property, as it caters primarily to Asian clientele, and many prior western reviewers indicated they felt marginalized. There are several small properties on Palau, and if I ever went back, I might give them a try. This was a bit of an intentional splurge due to the convergence of several birthdays and anniversaries.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience!! It's great insight for me and my boyfriend--we're planning our trip for Feb / March 2014.

I was actually considering Palau Royal Resort because it's so close to Fish N' Fins, but you chose Palau Pacific Resort, which is much farther... Was it a problem at all? Did they just pick you up? If so, was it far for you to walk to where they picked you up?

 

[ballast]

[/LIST]

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience!! It's great insight for me and my boyfriend--we're planning our trip for Feb / March 2014.

I was actually considering Palau Royal Resort because it's so close to Fish N' Fins, but you chose Palau Pacific Resort, which is much farther... Was it a problem at all? Did they just pick you up? If so, was it far for you to walk to where they picked you up?

If you're using Google Maps, please be aware someone tagged Fish 'n Fins in the wrong location. Makalal island is where you will find Palau Royal Resort, Neco Marine, Sams Tours and Sea Passion Hotel (another option to consider).

Fish 'n Fins is actually located on the Southwest side of Koror Island next to Palau Aquarium and M-Dock Marina.

For what it's worth, the big 3 dive shops all provide door-to-door van pickup service from your hotel. Just let them know where you will be staying and they'll pick you up each morning right from your hotel lobby. Typically, the very first day the pick-up from Palau Pacific Resort will be 7:30am so that you have extra time to fill out all the forms, get your weights, become familiar with the facilities, etc... From then on, morning pick-ups are at 8:00am. Returning back to the resort is pretty much whenever you want. Some opt to go back as soon as their gear is rinsed and hung up in the storage room. We would typically hang out and have a beer or two at the Barracuda dockside cafe. When we were ready to go back to the hotel, we'd just poke our head in the office and let them know. They have several vans of varying sizes as well as cars. It was never a problem to go back to the hotel when we wanted.

 

[Adventure-Ocean]

What you have described with these tourists diving is going on all over the world. A great deal of tourist divers are city people (especially the asian divers) who have limited experience or skills. There are definate cultural issues as well. I'm sure the Palauan tour operators and their staff have an insane challenge to protect the reefs from these divers. The Palau government does try hard to protect their islands from all the various businesses that impact their enviroment but enforcement is near impossible. I agree that this challenge does lie in their court but in truth global warming and pollution are taking a much larger toll on the reefs than the tourists.

I really love Palau. Wonderful people and approximately 2000 islands. It is worth visiting without a doubt. There are many ways of diving in Palau, you don't have to do the commercial tourist dives. With a little help you can connect with a local who would love to earn some money and take you in their boat and show you a great time. There are much cheaper hotels (I was paying $35 per night) that are comfortable. There are good and bad aspects of every place but the good by far overshadows the bad in Palau.

As divers, the best we can do is respect the underwater life and lead by example. Tolerating other tourists is part of the tourist world. Adventure-Ocean.com