Fish 'n Fins the pioneer dive shop in Palau and Ocean Hunter, Palau's most exclusive live aboard will host the second annual Wrexpedition, March 26-April 1, 2004. Specialty technical dives will be led by John Bennet, world record holder for the deepest dive.
The Micronesian Shark Foundation, Fish'n Fins Palau, Ocean Hunter and the Coral Reef Research Center invite divers and shark lovers for a week of shark diving, study and awareness. Every year between February and April hundreds of gray reef sharks gather in Palau for their annual mating season. The scratched and bitten shark females circling the deep walls attract not only the males, but also a wide variety of other pelagic fish who feed on the wounds. Prof. Phil Lobel of the Boston University will be in Palau to tag and monitor sharks and you are welcome to join the spectacle.
Divers who join the program will have a lifetime opportunity to dive a newly found dive site known as Silvertips Point and experience Deep Sea Shark Diving. Around the Fish Aggregating Devices of Palau are deep sea buoys placed in the open ocean to attract sharks and other pelagic fish.
Chuuk lagoon (also called Truk), one of the largest enclosed lagoons in the world, is 40 miles in diameter and reaches depths of 300 feet. The islands: Tol, Weno, Tonoas, Udot. Fefen and Uman are scattered about like so many raisins in a pudding. Aside from the sheer beauty of the undersea coral reef beneath the clear water, the bottom of Chuuk lagoon is the final tomb for more than 100 ships, planes and submarines--the legacy of a fierce World War II battle between the Japanese Imperial Fleet and Allied carrier attack planes.
These wrecks constitute one the greatest underwater museums in the world, transformed by prolific marine life and ocean currents into coral gardens and artificial reefs, home to hundreds of marine animals and fish. Today, Chuuk lagoon is of interest to divers, to underwater photographers and marine scientists.
Next time, we are going to Yap and on the way there we are probably going to learn just how frustrating and expensive it can be getting to the Federated States of Micronesia.