Mandarin Fish of Palau

The mandarin fish are so amazing and beautiful I never tire of photographing them. Here are some of the latest photos. This is a male with the dorsal fin extended. The mandarins start to emerge from the coral rubble just at dusk and do their courtship dance well into the night.

Merry Christmas from Palau.

Anguar Island, Palau

Sooke in the small harbor on Anguar Island.

Crashed WWII Navy Hellcat Fighter remains left in the aircraft cemetary.

Machine gun turret wreckage from a US Army Air Force bomber.

Peleliu Island Palau

View from Bloody Nose Ridge the scene of intense fighting during the invasion of Peleliu Island by US Marines and the US Army during WWII.

US Sherman tank destroyed by a improvised 200 pound mine.

Japanese tank probably the last remaining one as all the rest were removed by a scrap iron dealer in 1996.

"Mau" Pius Piailug, Carolinian Master Navigator

"Mau" Pius Piailug, Carolinian Master Navigator- 1932 - 2010

During the first week of July 2010, Mau passed away on the island atoll of Satawal in the Caroline Islands of Yap, Micronesia. He was a palu or Carolinian master navigator. He was responsible for the renaissance in the ancient art of long distance canoe voyaging and canoe building in the Caroline Islands, Yap, Hawaii, Marshall Islands, and Palau. He started his long distance canoe voyages in 1970 to his passing. I met him a number of times while he lived on Saipan. He was an amazing man in many ways and will be missed by all who knew and understood him.

Palau Diving

The Blue Corner dive site is famous for the grey sharks that glide on the currents. You must use a reef hook to hold on in the strong current. The sharks swim by one after another throughout the dive. This Magnificent Purse Anemone and clown fish is a standard photo op at Blue Corner.

A Ridley's Green Turtle at Turtle Cove.

A squadron of grey reef sharks patrolling Blue Corner.

The Grey Reef Shark, Caracharhinus amblyrhynchos has numerous names among them are the Bronze Whaler, and Whaler Shark,

Mandarin fish, Synchiropus splendidus abound just outside the entrance to Chandelier Cave. The males and females rise up from the coral and start a mating ritual dance that lasts well into the darkness turning this into a night dive. The cave is just a short dinghy ride from where Sooke is anchored. I could spend hours on the dive site.

A male Mandarin fish displaying his colors

Palau Rock Islands

After a fast downwind two day sail from Yap Island to Palau the time was right for diving and cruising the quiet waters of Palau's Rock Islands.

The coral formations at the Soft Coral Arch were stunning.

Moon Jellyfish, Auretia sp

Jellyfish Lake was a special treat to snorkle among millions of jellyfish. The jellyfish have evolved in the brackish water and the stingers are barely noticable. The jellyfish follow a daily east to west migration following the sun and consuming algae that provides food and energy for the jellyfish through photosynthesis.

Two types of jellyfish can be observed in tthe lake. Spotted Golden and Moon Jellyfish.

Spotted Golden Jellyfish, Mastigias cf. papua etpisoni
A very sureal experience indeed... I kept hearing the music of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" album while snorkling around the lake..

Wall drift diving off Pelilu Island. Just relax and let the strong currents do all the work.

Sooke at anchor in one the hundreds of quiet anchorages in the Rock Islands.
There are very few boats cruising the islands and one can be alone for weeks at a time.
The bird life is amazing and the bird calls and sounds overwhelming.

That's why the area is called the Rock Islands. Thousands of limestone rock islands and formations form this protected area.

Adios Saipan Olomaway Yap

Leaf fish
Finally untied the docklines and sailed out of Saipan to Ulithi Atoll. Three days of downwind sailing saw Falalop Island on the horizon. Short visits were made ashore on Falalop and Fedderi Islands. The islanders still live a traditional lifestyle with a few modern amenities like DVD movies. An overnight sail took Sooke to Colonia, Yap Island. After a much needed haulout and new bottompaint completed at the Yap Fisheries Boat Yard, it was time to dive the waters of Yap. I made contact with Alex Raiman of Yap Divers. He is a twenty year veteran dive guide and knows the dive sites very well. High voltage shark action at Vertigo Wall keep the heart pumping. At times we had up to fifteen grey reef sharks approaching the divers.

The Giant Manta Rays were elusive on a number of dives but finally showed up at the Cleaning Station in Mill Channel. Sitting on the bottom at 75 feet for up to thirty to fourty minutes made the use of nitrox and the extended no-decompression times perfect for this dive site. These graceful creatures would approach us from all directions and make passes directly over top of the divers.

Giant Manta Ray Manta birostris

Nudibranch

Grey Reef Sharks Carcharhinus amblyrhynchos

Soft Corals on South Reef Wall.