Palau is world-renowned for its spectacular diving sites, home to vibrant coral reefs and an incredible diversity of marine life.
Here are some of the dive sites that you may have the opportunity to visit on your liveaboard or land-based dive experience.
Blue Corner – Palau’s most famous dive site and possibly its most exciting. It is well known for its strong currents and triangular plateau drops into the deep blue ocean, both of which attract schools of barracuda, grey reef sharks, and eagle rays. Divers often hold onto the rocks near the reef and stay in one spot, allowing the current to present an unforgettable experience of witnessing marine life of such magnitude. The coral is bright and healthy, adding ocean colour to the scene.
German Channel – One of Palau’s signature dive sites, known for its close encounters with manta rays that return regularly to sandy-bottom cleaning stations for grooming. In the early 20th century, it was made into a shipping route by German miners. Now, the channel is full of marine life, including reef sharks, eagle rays, and schools of jacks and snappers. With its mix of big-animal action and fascinating history, the German Channel provides an unforgettable dive experience for everyone.
Ulong Channel – Another exciting dive site that features fast-moving currents, colourful coral walls, and an abundance of marine life. The dive starts along a beautiful reef slope and then takes you through a sandy channel filled with tall cabbage corals, large sea fans, and groups of snapper, barracuda, and reef sharks.
Blue Holes – This remote destination features four vertical sinkholes that lead into a large chamber filled with soft corals and sea fans. Pelagic species, such as sharks, tuna, and barracuda, frequent this area.
Nearby, New Drop-Off and Short Drop-Off showcase steep reef walls that burst with colour and life, including pyramid butterflyfish, jacks, and reef sharks.
Siaes Tunnel – This location offers a spectacular deep dive through a vast underwater cavern with a view into the open ocean, where stingrays, turtles, and sharks often glide by.
Peleliu – This region, at the southern end of the archipelago, boasts dramatic, current-swept walls, such as Yellow Wall and Peleliu Corner, making it an ideal location for spotting larger pelagic fish in a more remote and rugged environment.
Ngedebus & Ngerchong – These Reefs are top spots, housing some of the Pacific’s most impressive hard coral formations. These reefs are teeming with marine life, from turtles and cuttlefish to swarms of reef fish and vibrant anemones.
Wonder Channel – located among the Rock Islands, Wonder Channel offers a calmer dive along a shallow wall that features soft corals, pipefish, crabs, and a stunning array of nudibranchs.
Meanwhile, the wreck of the Iro Maru, a sunken WWII cargo ship, stands upright in deep water. Its decks and turrets are now covered in corals and marine life, providing a haunting yet beautiful glimpse into Palau’s wartime history.
