Diving Palau part 2

Second day of diving Palau

Sandy Beaches & Ulong Channel

"Highlights": Nesting Triggerfish who chased us ;-), one huge Coral patch and giant calms and

on out way back, over the surface, a sunbathing banded sea snake in some of the rocks.

Spearfishing in Yap

Today I went out with some locals for spearfishing. The Chief of my village put some

pressure on me. "We need a lot of fish, better you are good!". ;-)

First by boat to another village for getting the permission to fish at the place the guys wanted to and 

then to the first spot. They all have handmade spearguns, which is impressive compared to my own 

facility made one.

The visibility was like 5m-7m, very bad. The first half an hour I had 

problems with my mask and I couldn't localize where it came from. All the time water was running 

into my mask at the right side. Like in the past at the Lake of Zurich during training, it was

the silicon which was not covering the glass 100%. After I fixed that, one of my best Spearfishing/Freediving

days started ;)

The locals did not went really deep for fish, they stayed between 3-10m. I spotted some Buffalo-Fish 

(better known as Humphead Parrotfish) and bigger Groupers at 15-17m and tried to get one of them. 

No chance getting in shooting distance, except once, but already counted 11 Grey Reef Sharks. Not 

worse it risking accidentally getting bitten by one of them. 

So many Sharks around there so I was watching my back all the time. That's also the reason why

the Eagle rays and even two Manta ray's!, scared the shit out of me when I saw that shadows not even

one meter above my head. One of my best moments in freediving!!!

Getting surprised by an Eagle ray during spearfishing (Tonga) is quite nice, but getting surprised by two 

Mantas, that's really cool!!!

You also have to know, that it is not allowed to do Freediving/Skindiving with Manta Ray's at that spot 

we've been in Yap, I already asked for that before. So I was very lucky!

Two Manta Ray's, seven Eagle Ray's, one Leopard Shark and Whitetip Reef and plenty of Grey Reefs.

Not easy shooting there something, specially when every one is hunting on there own, but

at the end the Chief was satisfied and I shared some of my fish with some Japanese in the Restaurant.

Fresh Bigeye Travelly sashimi and fried Spadefish, delicious!

During Dinner, the Dive Instructor (and owner of the Restaurant) told me, that I was fishing at a dive spot, which was 

voted a couple of years ago to one of the best diving sites, I can imagine why ;)

Looks like the storm is coming in 2-3 days.

Bullsharks

Bula!

I was too fascinated and flashed by the impressions I got during my Shark dives and
during my stay in Fiji, that I waited till the last dive for this post.

As I already mentioned before, the location is nice. It is a very good
mixture between backpacking and "luxury" Beach Resort. We are staying in
a dormitory for 20 people (peak was like 10+-). The Fijian are all very
friendly end helpful with everything. If you have any kind of need, tell
them and they will try to help you. Also compared to Tongan people, they are
very interested in you and obviously, not only in your money.
As the people from Niue and French Polynesia, the Fijian can also cook ;)
The food is very good and because of all the Indian people living there,
it has a nice mixture.

But now let's get to the most interesting part ... Bullsharks ;)
First I heard about a "special" shark dive site in Fiji, about 6-7 years ago.
I was watching Youtube/Vimeo Video's about this place all the time
and had this on my bucketlist since that time. Mike from Beqa Adventure Divers
is also hosting a very popular shark blog, which for
me is one of my daily newspapers in the morning. I've been reading his
blog now for 3 years and learned a lot about sharks, conservation and
some other marine related stuff.
Anyway, we booked flights to Fiji and a short time later, Mike did
another "lottery" on his blog. The 1.000.000 viewer will get 7 days of
shark diving for free and long story short... Yieha!!!
Sadly our stay on Fiji wasn't so long, but five shark dives is still a
good number and every dive was different and worth it, at least for me ;)

The dive site is not a normal dive site, it's a Shark Reef Marine Reserve (read more).

They established it in april 2004 as the first of it's kind in Fiji and the first
I heard about. It's a dedicated, protected sanctuary for sharks, owned by some
local villages. Everyone who is diving there, has to pay a 'Shark
Reef Marine Reserve Levy' of FJD $20, which is going directly to the village.
The fisherman stopped fishing there and help to protect the reef and as compensation
they get the Levy. Good idea and in my opinion the only thing you can do
to protect and keep places like this in the future. There are a couple of places
I know, where this should work too, if you are doing it right.

Worth to mention...
The whole team of Beqa Adventure Divers is doing a great job. Beginning
with the check-in and the normal dive boat stuff, like putting all the
equipment on board, preparing the tanks for you, even if you are using
you own gear (sure if you want to do it your self, just say something)
doing a very good safety instruction for the boat (never had this before)
and for sure a deep explanation about the dive site and how the dive will
be done. And ending with taking well care off your expensive photo/video
gear you are taking with you.

Check-in, equipment check, wait, boarding, safety and take off and enjoy!

5 days of diving and over 1000 pictures and still sorting
them out, but so far a couple of good shots

Vinaka vaka levu to all of Beqa Adventure Divers.
The dive is perfectly organized and absolutely safe. They are looking all the
time after you and your safety. If there will be any chance that something
can happen, then only because an idiot is not following the rules.
All in all the best SCUBA!-diving experience I had so far!