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Dive Review of Palau Aggressor in
Micronesia/Palau

Palau Aggressor, Mar, 2013,

by Robert and Laura Mosqueda, CA, US (Contributor Contributor 14 reports with 6 Helpful votes). Report 6946.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 4 stars Food 5 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 3 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 3 stars
Beginners 2 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments The diving is great: strong currents at Blue Corner and German Channel and Ulong channel bring in amazing pelagic life including lots of grey reef sharks (and even a hammerhead!), tuna, mackerel,barracuda, jacks, trevallys. The dm does a great job explaining how to hook in without causing damage. We encountered huge schools of barracuda, fusiliers, pyramid butterflies, and even a big beautiful school of Moorish idols. Lots of sweetlips, clown triggers on almost every dive, turtles on almost every dive, schools of bumphead parrots, friendly humphead wrasse, blue striped snapper, etc. The topography was also lots of fun: some dives were on walls, others along huge plateaus, and others in huge caverns.
We even saw the infamous "disco clam" near the blue holes cavern... don't miss it! Diving logistics are easy: just hook up your gear on the first day, it's loaded onto the dive skiffs and that's where it stays for the whole trip. They hose everything down each evening. If you have your own reef hooks and dive lights bring them because they charge extra for those things and you'll want them for quite a few dives.

Although the trip was really great we did have a few disappointments. When the trip was over we learned that the crew was understaffed by one or two people which may explain some of this. The captain (a South African named Marc) was a gracious host and talented underwater photographer. A few folks were taking the PADI photo course from him and they received preferential attention (such as being brought to nudibranchs and other small interesting stuff) during the dive. There are a lot of folks on the boat (18) and we dove as a group which meant that there were times we were quite crowded during the dive. The 2 other dive masters had only been on the boat for a month and were unfamiliar with the dive sites. Little effort was made to assure all divers saw some of the most interesting little creatures such as the disco clam. The dive masters were quite intent on taking lots of photos and videos which they then hawked at the end of the trip. While I understand their need to make an extra buck, I would have preferred more dive guiding; perhaps we could have been split into smaller groups at times and they could have expended more effort in finding and pointing out macro life. I was also surprised by the lack of expertise in identification of fish and invertebrates.
The boat is lovely. Our room was fine; toilets cannot accept flushing of toilet paper and I wish the trash cans were cleaned a bit more frequently. Do look closely at the website so that you are not put in the room that opens directly on to the dive deck... the two poor fellows in that room were in cramped, hot conditions! The food was superb. The engineer, also a diver, was a great dive guide and he knew the sites very well so it was nice when he dove with us.
Websites Palau Aggressor   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 501-1000 dives
Where else diving New Guinea, Sulawesi, Komodo, Little Cayman, Socorro Islands, Southern California, Cocos, Cancun, Florida
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 83-85°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile no
Enforced diving restrictions 60 min per dive. Generally <90 feet.
Liveaboard? yes Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas 1 or 2
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 5 stars
Small Critters 2 stars Large Fish 5 stars
Large Pelagics 5 stars

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

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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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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