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Dive of the Month
 
"The pool is open!" shouted Fish 'n Fins
dive guide Eddie Foja on a bright and sunny Thursday morning, November
24th. Shortly after all other dive operators in the area had finished
their dives, he and his group of divers performed their back roll
entry, descended and drifted along a wall known as the outgoing
side of Blue Corner. With a water temperature of 29C/88F, good viz
and a gentle current, Eddie levelled off at about 18 metres/55 feet,
putting the wall on the left heading for the hooking area. After
encountering several grey reefs, giant trevallies and whitetips, Eddie
signalled his group to hook.
"Everyone then ascended a few feet, hooked themselves on top of the
plateau and enjoyed the usual action", Eddie says. "Being hooked for a
while, I decided to look for the school of blackbar barracudas as I
promised during the briefing. As I turned my head to the left I suddenly saw a dark shadow approaching us from the left, moving along the drop
off against the current. The shadow had an unusual size. My heart was
in my throat, I'm telling you! What initially went through my mind were the two encounters I had with tiger sharks in this same area some time
ago. But the dots and the wide head finally revealed what we were
seeing. We were encountering a juvenile whale shark, 20 feet long and
very close to the wall at a depth of 50 feet." Eddie continues: "We unhooked, swam around the whale shark which was followed by a
dozen grey reef sharks. It then swam away from us, came back to the
reef, ascended all the way to the surface and finally took off into the blue. It was my first encounter with the world's biggest fish and
the best dive of my life so far."
Ocean Hunter I Refit
Ocean Hunter I, designed to yacht standards, underwent a major refit earlier this year. Each cabin now has independent air-conditioning, a new design, private toilet and shower, white lining and teakwood trims. Palau’s most luxurious live-aboard got an engine room upgrade as well: the generators, water makers, fresh water system and sewer are all new. Unchanged are the crew. Captain Siksei (8000 logged dives), divemaster Troy (10,000 logged dives) and Chef Arlee (9000 gourmet-diners), guarantee guest satisfaction. Providing a high-class, unrivalled liveaboard experience for diving Palau, Ocean Hunter I accommodated 58% repeater guests between July 2004 and July 2005.
Nick Martorano, Ph.D
 One of our new staff members is Nick Martorano, Ph.D. Nick is an underwater videographer and digital video producer, speaks English and Italian and works at Fish 'n Films, the
Underwater Photo & Video Imagery Service provided by Fish 'n Fins. He also has a strong interest in marine conservation and has participated in research work to monitor the health of the California coast kelp forest environment. His past underwater photo and video projects have included locations such as the Florida Keys, Fiji, Cozumel (Mexico), Virgin Islands, French-Polynesia, Hawaii and Cocos Island (Costa Rica). Nick holds several PADI scuba diving certifications, including PADI
Instructor, Underwater Naturalist and Research Diver. Blue Corner and Siaes Tunnel are his favourite reefs in Palau, the Mandarin Fish and the Manta
Ray his favourite fish.
Guestbook
"Palau has fulfilled all my expectations", says Jan Senkyr from Germany, one of the guests
diving with Fish 'n Fins in October 2005.
He has logged around 200
dives in the Red Sea, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Sri
Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and French-Polynesia.
"What you guys have here is the best I've seen so far, in terms of underwater diversity", he explains. "On all 35 dives I did in Palau, I saw what I came for. What I really liked was the fact that all dive sites are reachable by speedboat from Koror.
Jan smiles and adds: "one of the dives I will never forget was the one we did on Short Drop Off in the morning. That's when we saw three silvertips and a tigershark. Palau is pretty remote and may not be the cheapest dive destination, but it's absolutely worth everything."
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