Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Micronesia/Palau

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Aggressor Fleet: "Another great trip to Palau", Sep, 2022, by robert linscheer, CO, US ( Reviewer 4 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 12064.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Palau Aggressor no longer requires covid testing and does not require masking onboard, though some signage is still up and some crew members occasionally wore masks. The boat briefing, while thorough, seemed very rushed. It consisted of a powerpoint presentation with the cruise director lecturing over the top of it. There was no walk-around and no emergency drill. Speaking with other passengers later, I found that not much information was absorbed. One topic that was emphasized was battery charging. That all camera & light charging needed to be done on the (outdoor) dive deck and that this charging would be shut off late at night. You could charge a phone in your room, but only while you were present. The dive deck briefing was done on the dive deck and was thorough. Otherwise the crew was very attentive to what was going on and would redirect wayward customer behavior as necessary. Nitrox testing: handheld nitrox testers were not provided. Instead, while filling was going on, crew members would call out the numbers sampled by a tester at the filling station board. My occasional observations showed this number varying by several tenths during the filling process of all the tanks. It was usually between 32-33%. Divers wanting to be certain of their nitrox settings would be advised to bring a testing unit of their own. Most dives of our 15 member group was accompanied by at least two dive masters, though one might also be taking video for the boat's film that they sell at the end. The majority of the dives went very smoothly. Dive masters gave a good briefing on how to use a dive hook and on several dives the current was strong enough to make use of them. Entry was via backroll from the side of the skiff, reentry via a sturdy ladder. Cameras were then handed down/up, if the diver did not splash with it. Skiff operations did not seem forced or rushed. However a dive to see manta rays turned somewhat chaotic. The dive briefing onboard told us one of two things would happen, we would either hang out at the bottom at a cleaning station, or if mantas were spotted feeding on the way to the site, we would jump in there. From the skiff we saw multiple mantas feeding near the surface at the mouth of German Channel, so a hurried briefing said we were to backroll in and then follow the divemaster and stay at 20-40ft. The water, being full of the plankton the mantas like to eat, was a bit more murky than on other dives, with visibility at times around 50ft. As there is only enough room on the skiff edge for half the divers, entry is done in two groups. As I was in the first group of divers to enter the water, I was just behind the dive master who immediately took off after a sighting. After the first sighting, he spotted a leopard shark on the bottom and immediately dove to 80ft to show us. Looking around at that point there were only 4 of us passengers left in the group. Those in the second found themselves left behind and on their own. What ensued amounted to swimming around in various directions at 20 to 40 ft to catch sight of feeding mantas. Those of us with the dive master managed a zig-zag across the channel seeing many manta rays swimming up to us, then performing multiple loops, turns and such. Mantas did not seem bothered by our presence and only dodged a bit when an errant diver was in their way. Those folks not with the dive master, while having quite a few sightings, were not as successful being in the right spot as those of us in the first group. Though the boat literature states that the dive masters do not lead dives, that buddy pairs are responsible for their own dives, many were rightly upset about the leader not diving the plan he stated and leaving many to fend for themselves. For myself, as I was lucky to be with the dive master, the dive worked out to be the best of the trip.
Websites	Aggressor Fleet [same]
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Mostly Caribbean; Belize, Roatan, Turks & Caicos. Bucket trips to Palau, Raja Ampat, Kona
Closest Airport	Koror (Palau)	Getting There	United currently only option. Flew Honolulu, Guam, Koror with some long layovers
Dive Conditions
Weather	dry	Seas	calm, currents
Water Temp	84-87°F / 29-31°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Nothing enforced, but were told not to plan a dive deeper than 100ft.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	1 or 2	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	All diving was from a launch. You chose whether you were comfortable having your camera on the carpeted platform at the aft, or to keep it with you for the trip. Boat provided drying microfiber cloths and a large carpeted table on the dive deck for camera manipulation. Compressed air hoses could be used to blow off the outside of housings and such, though oddly the air sometimes had condensation, making that not the best idea for the insides of housings.

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Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in Micronesia/Palau

Aggressor Fleet: "Another great trip to Palau", Sep, 2022,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Aggressor Fleet in
Micronesia/Palau