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Swimming out into the blue is always a risk, as you never know what you will see. On this excursion into the blue we had already seen grey reef sharks and schools of trevally and barracuda, yet were hoping for something a little more dramatic. And then we saw it, a dense school of fish – thousands of bumphead parrotfish. However, this was no ordinary gathering of fish as the bumphead parrotfish were spawning! This early morning spawning was just one of the amazing things I saw in Palau on a recent trip on Ocean Hunter III.

Palau is a small island nation in the northern Pacific Ocean and is part of Micronesia. Located east of the Philippines, Palau was the first nation to declare its waters a shark sanctuary in 2009 and currently protects almost all its reefs as a marine sanctuary – meaning lots of sharks and fishes for divers to see.

Getting to Palau has never been easy, with flights via an assortment of surrounding nations, unfortunately with these flights constantly being rescheduled or cancelled. So when I heard the news that Nauru Airlines were offering a direct flight from Brisbane I was overjoyed, especially when I was asked by Diveplanit to join a specially organised trip on Ocean Hunter III to celebrate this new route.

Meeting our group at Brisbane Airport, we boarded our flight for the direct five and half hour overnight flight. Fortunately for us, the plane was almost empty, so we got a row of seats to ourselves to try and sleep. Arriving at 4.30am in Palau, we quickly got through customs and immigration and then had a few hours rest at the Palau Central Hotel, before the crew from Fish ’n’ Fins picked us up for our seven-day liveaboard trip on Ocean Hunter III.

Our group of six were the only guests on board this luxury liveaboard, as August is the Palau low season with fewer bookings. Ocean Hunter III caters for 16 guests in eight spacious cabins with ensuites. The vessel has a camera setup area, a roomy dining and lounge room, and a shaded sundeck with two spas. The dive deck is not large, but is uncluttered of dive gear, as this is kept on the chase boat that takes you to the dive sites.

After a late lunch, the first of many incredible meals prepared by chefs Arlee and Sourav, we headed out for our checkout dive with guides Ace and Epi to explore a small World War II cargo vessel in the lagoon. Called Hafa Adai, this 30m long vessel rests in 24m and was a nice relaxing dive with 12m visibility and 29°C water temperature. The wreck is covered in soft corals, gorgonians, black corals and sponges, and was home to a good variety of reef fish and invertebrates.

IMAGE BELOW - SPAWNING BUMPHEAD PARROTFISH

In the early morning Ocean Hunter III moved south and relocated near the Ulong Channel. There are close to one hundred dive sites in Palau for divers to explore. In the large, sheltered lagoon are dozens of shipwrecks and planewrecks from World War II, while the fringing reef has walls, coral gardens, caves and blue holes to explore.

Diveplanit had timed our visit with the new moon so we could experience one of Palau’s unique attractions, the spawning of the bumphead parrotfish. An early start found as diving at Ulong Sand Bar, exploring a sloping coral reef with 40m visibility. We quickly saw schools of trevally, rainbow runners and barracuda, several grey reef sharks and a good collection of reef fish. Hundreds of bumphead parrotfish were leaving the reef and heading out into the blue, so we followed. We couldn’t find any large groups of parrotfish, but did witness several smaller groups of five or six swimming towards the surface and releasing their eggs and sperm. While it was fascinating to watch, I didn’t get any photos, so was a little disappointed by the experience.

The next few dives quickly made up for this. First up was Siaes Tunnel, one of the sites I most wanted to dive as I knew it was a spot to see some rare fish. This spectacular cave has an entry on the reef wall and opens into a massive chamber than exits at 30m. Lined with gorgonians and soft corals it would make for great wide-angle images, but I had a macro lens on to hunt for small, unusual fishes. I spotted the first after a five-minute search, a very rare Cocos-Keeling angelfish.

This rare fish is only 6cm long and very shy. I tired to photograph it for five minutes as it ducked in and out of cracks in the wall. I managed a few decent images until Epi called me over and showed me two more that were even shier. Then I looked for the rare black and white butterflyfish, and spotted a few of these, but they were also very elusive. After exploring the tunnel we cruised the reef wall, seeing reef sharks, pufferfish and turtles.

Our next dive at Ulong Channel was even better. We started the dive at the channel entrance with reef hooks and watching a dozen grey reef sharks cruising back and forth. They were joined by several whitetip reef sharks and a cute small spotted eagle ray. After hanging in the current for twenty minutes we detached and drifted with the current down the channel. Here were healthy hard corals, gorgonians, sea whips and whip corals. Coral trout were everywhere, thousands of them, but we also saw gropers, reef sharks, batfish, snappers and sweetlips. We briefly paused in a cave to watch a hawksbill turtle feeding.

 BELOW - GREY REEF SHARKS ARE COMMON AT PALAU.

Our afternoon dive at Siaes Corner was one I was looking forward to as skipper Ken said it was the best place to see a fish that has eluded my camera for years, the rare flame angelfish. This was another wonderful wall dive with abundant grey reef sharks, schools of barracuda and snappers. We also encountered giant morays, hawksbill turtles and a wonderful variety of reef fish. Ken gave me the tip to look for the flame angelfish on the top of the wall, and after a few minutes I spotted the first.

These lovely small colourful fish are a variety of pygmy angelfish, so seen in small groups consisting of a male and several females. I spent several minutes photographing the first group of three and got some nice images. I was extremely surprised by the end of the dive to have found twelve of these normally rare fish.

The next morning, we returned to Ulong Sand Bar to look for more spawning bumphead parrotfish. The visibility was not as good today, around 30m, and we headed straight out into the blue water to look for the action. We spotted reef sharks and schools of pelagic fish and then saw a dark cloud - thousands of bumphead parrotfish.

For the next thirty minutes the action was insane, with group after group heading towards the surface to spawn. These groups appeared to be one female and group of five to eight males. It was amazing to watch, but frustrating to photograph, as the spawning only lasted a few seconds and was generally five to ten metres away. With so much spawning happening the visibility was quickly reduced to only 10m!

Our next dive was on the Iro, a 143m long fleet oiler and supply ship sunk in Operation Desecrate in March 1944. During this operation in World War II, around 50 Japanese ships and planes were destroyed and sunk in the lagoon at Palau. Today about a dozen are regularly dived.

The Iro rests in 40m, with much of the ship’s structure between 15m and 30m. We swam a lap of the wreck, seeing winches, the bridge, king posts, the hold and the massive 7-inch bow gun. The wreck is covered in corals, home to many fishes and while the visibility is not always great in the lagoon, we enjoyed 12m viz.

We then dived the 87m long tanker Chuyo Maru. This was another impressive shipwreck with masts, guns, winches and other items of interest. In the late afternoon we explore a Jake Sea Plane resting in 17m. This plane is in surprisingly good condition after 80 years on the sea floor, and a fascinating dive. Unfortunately, the reef around it was a little dull after the wonderful reef dives we had already done.

‍IMAGE BELOW - LOVELY FLAME ANGELFISH.

Overnight we relocated further south to German Channel and welcomed four new passengers, a family from America. For their checkout dive we did Fairyland, which was a sloping coral wall with no sharks or pelagic fish, but plenty of colourful reef fishes.

The next two dives were far better at New Dropoff and Turtle Wall. Both these walls are covered in beautiful corals and patrolled by reef sharks and pelagic fishes. We saw green turtles at both sites, but with more current at New Dropoff it had far more fish action including giant Maori wrasse and a massive school of midnight snappers.

The afternoon dive at German Channel was a little disappointing, as the visibility was poor, at only 10m, and there were no reef manta rays, which are usually a feature at this site. We were outside the main manta season, but still encountered reef sharks and schools of snapper.

The night dive at nearby German Reef was much better, with the coral slope at this site home to sea slugs, shrimps, crabs, sleeping fish and hunting morays.

The next morning, we finally got to dive Palau’s premier site, Blue Corner. This wall and reef plateau is washed by currents and a magnet for marine life. Though the current was not as strong as usual, we still encountered over a dozen grey reef sharks, schools of barracuda, trevally, rainbow runners and paddletail snapper. Around the coral gardens were turtles, gropers, Maori wrasse and morays.

The Blue Holes was our next dive and it was sensational. This site starts in an opening in the reef top, then you drop into a massive cavity with two exits at 18m and 28m. I found another rare Cocos-Keeling angelfish and other unusual fish in the cave and then enjoyed a drift along the nearby wall seeing reef sharks, turtles, morays and bumphead parrotfish. After lunch we dived Ngemelis Wall, another pretty wall dive, and then returned to Blue Corner for a repeat dose of the impressive marine life.

Turtle Cove the next morning was exciting with its abundant turtles and schools of midnight snapper and paddletail snapper. We explored another pretty dropoff at Clarence Wall, seeing more reef sharks, schools of squirrelfish and a banded sea krait. All these dive sites were west of German Channel, so for something different we dived the eastern side at Ngerchong Wall and Ngerchong Coral Garden. Both were lovely dives with reef sharks, schooling fish and a spotted eagle ray at the wall and lots of reef fish at the coral garden, including numerous blennies, gobies and pygmy angelfish.

IMAGE BELOW - SCHOOLS OF FISH AT BLUE CORNER

For our final day of diving, we dived Virgin Blue Hole, which was another incredibly large cave, and explored two more walls at Big Dropoff and Barnum’s Wall. For our last dive we were going to explore Blue Corner again, but I was hoping to have one last look at German Channel, and it was agreed we would dive here if the visibility had improved, and fortunately it had.

The visibility was now 15m, but with lots of particles. We headed down the reef slope and found a broad cowtail stingray resting under a layer of sand. We then moved to the reef edge, where the mantas come to get cleaned, and looked up to see a massive ball of fish above us feeding. Thousands of fusiliers, midnight snapper, rainbow runners, trevally and drummer were feasting on the plankton soup. Suddenly they were joined by a reef manta ray, then another, and another two. Our guide Epi indicated we should leave the bottom and swim in midwater to watch the mantas feeding, which we did for the next thirty minutes.

It was amazing sight, seeing four manta rays swimming back and forth, spinning around and around and doing somersaults with their mouths open wide to consume the plankton. They swam very close at times, and then would disappear for minutes, only to suddenly reappear amongst the fishes. The feeding fish were also entertaining, grabbing the plankton with wide open mouths as they swarmed around us. When the mantas finally departed, we did a drift through German Channel, encountering reef sharks, schooling snappers, triggerfish and even a large crocodilefish.

We had an incredible week of diving in Palau, only experiencing a small fraction of the nation’s incredible dive sites. I will be back to explore more.

Each year Nigel Marsh leads special photography group trips to dive destinations across the globe. On these trips Nigel is on hand to help improve your underwater photography and does regular talks on photography and marine life. In September 2025 he will be leading a special trip back to Palau on Ocean Hunter III.

IMAGE BELOW - REEF MANTA RAYS IN GERMAN CHANNEL