Palau's Dive Diversity

of barracuda roam this ship and schooling fish are usually thick. The foremast is a haven for all sorts of marine invertebrates. Giant tridacna clams nestle between corals as clams, oysters, whip corals, and bulb corals heavily congregate on the shallow mast. The holds are empty with the second hold blown open from bomb damage, creating a gaping hole large enough for divers to easily swim through. Soft corals, gorgonians and stinging hydroids have taken root here; however, the ship is generally free from noticeable currents. The upper bridge and rear are worthy of exploration, but don’t penetrate the engine room. The aft has a fallen mast and small deck gun. Spend a couple dives here and explore this interesting wreck and her resident sea life.

Two great snorkel sites in Palau aren’t to be missed on any visit to the Rock Islands. Soft Coral Arch and Jellyfish Lake are well worth the trip. The Arch is one of the few places in the Rock Islands where huge soft corals grow in assorted shades from vibrant reds to soft pastels, painting the sea floor like cotton candy. This site is recommended for snorkeling only as the soft corals are extremely delicate and fin damage and other contact can easily kill them. Located deep in the center of a limestone island, Jellyfish Lake is reached by hiking through the tropical forest to the top of a rock island and down the ridges to the edge of a briny swamp. The water clears up and drops to about ten feet with decaying vegetation mixing with a maze of roots. There are two types of jellyfish found here, the Mastigias and Aurelia Aurita, or moon jellyfish species. They have developed a symbiotic relationship with the algae growing inside their bodies for food, moving around the lake following the sunlight that produces the algae. They have lost their ability to sting, as no predators except a few anemones found in the lake eat the jellyfish. Snorkelers are surrounded by hundreds of thousands of these animals at all depths, pulsing, gelatinous blobs floating by your face mask in every size from a thimble to larger than your hand. Since El Nino a couple years ago, the Mastigias jellies are in a polyp dormant state, only a matter of time before they come back. There are still hundreds of jellyfish in the lake and it is well

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