Neco Marine/Palau Pacific Resort, Jan, 2009,by Stanley Zuk, NY, USA (![]() |
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No photos available at this time | |||
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Accommodations | ![]() |
Food | ![]() |
Service and Attitude | ![]() |
Environmental Sensitivity | N/A |
Dive Operation | ![]() |
Shore Diving | N/A |
Snorkeling | ![]() |
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Overall Rating |
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Value for $$ | ![]() |
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Beginners | ![]() |
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Advanced | ![]() |
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Comments |
In late November I went again to Palau in order to enjoy one of my favorite dive spots. This time I was diving with Neco Marine, and stayed in Palau Pacific Resort. Neco Marine has a wonderful staff, very good boats, good lunches, and you really don't mind 40 minutes rides to dive sites, cause the scenery is so beautiful. Palau Pacific Resort is just great, lovely staff, good house reef to snorkel, and it is definitely the best place to stay in Palau. It all seems like a wonderful combination, however, the diving was not the same, and most of us saw that overfishing has deprived Palau of some procentage of its fishlife. Beautiful, sheer walls are still as nice, but they were kind of empty, not teeming with fish like some years ago, and if I had to choose between the fishlife and corals, I would rather go back to Fiji again. We dove wonderful Blue Corner 3 times, and it was always very enjoyable, with schools of small barracuda, small sharks, turtles, and big napoleon wrasses, but on this visit, if it wasn't for the Blue Corner, and the New Drop Off, we would not have much to see at all. German Channel which we dove three times was very empty, and there was no mantas at all. Most experienced divers know that diving is always like a hit or miss situation, when it comes to big pelagics, or what you see on each dive, however, we all noticed big dicrease in the amount of fishlife. Palau is still a must see destination for all divers, and it is a beautiful, and friendly spot, but when it comes to diving, I would rather go back to Fiji, or my favorite Tuamotu Islands, where diving is definitely much better. |
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Reporter and Travel |
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Dive Experience | Over 1000 dives | ||
Where else diving | Cozumel, Bonaire, Curacao, Caymans, Seychelles, Zanzibar, Mauritius, Rodrigues, Maldives, Fakarava, Rangiroa, Bora Bora, Cook Islands, Fiji, PNG, Micronesia, many others... | ||
Closest Airport | Getting There | ||
Dive Conditions |
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Weather | sunny, dry | Seas | calm, no currents |
Water Temp | 78-83°F / 26-28°C | Wetsuit Thickness | |
Water Visibility | 10-30 M / 33-98 Ft | ||
Dive Policy |
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Dive own profile | no | ||
Enforced diving restrictions | [Unspecified] | ||
Liveaboard? | no | Nitrox Available? | N/A |
What I Saw |
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Sharks | Lots | Mantas | None |
Dolphins | None | Whale Sharks | None |
Turtles | > 2 | Whales | None |
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best): |
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Corals | ![]() |
Tropical Fish | ![]() |
Small Critters | ![]() |
Large Fish | ![]() |
Large Pelagics | ![]() |
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Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best): |
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Subject Matter | N/A | Boat Facilities | N/A |
Overall rating for UWP's | N/A | Shore Facilities | N/A |
UW Photo Comments | [None] |
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