Palau

Region: Republic of Palau, Western Pacific Type: Coral reefs, channels, pelagics, Jellyfish Lake Significance: Where Wetpixel began; world’s first shark sanctuary; global conservation leader First Wetpixel coverage: 2001 (origin story)

Overview

Palau is described as “one of the seven underwater wonders of the world” with 1,330+ fish species and 700+ coral species at the convergence of three major ocean currents. It holds a unique place in Wetpixel history: Eric Cheng’s April 2001 trip to Palau aboard the Big Blue Explorer liveaboard with a Coolpix 990 and Ikelite housing was the trip that led to founding Wetpixel.

Key dive sites include Blue Corner (wall diving with grey reef sharks), German Channel (manta cleaning station), Ulong Channel (drift diving), Blue Holes (cavern diving), and Jellyfish Lake (non-stinging golden jellyfish).

Wetpixel Origin

Eric Cheng quit his Silicon Valley career, took a Palau dive trip in April 2001 with his first underwater camera, and was recruited by David Breitigam to cover the Kona Digital Shootout later that year. He subsequently took over Wetpixel and built it into the leading UW photography community.

Conservation Leadership

Palau is one of the world’s most progressive marine conservation nations:

• 2009: President Johnson Toribiong declared the world’s first shark sanctuary — the entire Palau EEZ (237,000 sq mi) — at the UN General Assembly. He received the Ocean Heritage Award from Shark Research Institute in 2010 (^[1]).
• 2011: Micronesian Chief Executive Summit passed a resolution for a regional shark sanctuary covering Palau, FSM, Marshall Islands, Guam, and Northern Marianas — 2 million square miles (^[2]).
• 2015: Palau established a 193,000 sq mi marine reserve (size of California) — no fishing or mining permitted. The same year, Palau burned 4 Vietnamese poaching vessels caught with sharks and shark fins (^[3]).
• 2016: Palau deployed satellite tracking (SkyTruth) to combat illegal fishing (^[4]).
• 2017: A PLOS One study confirmed the marine reserve doubled fish numbers and increased predatory fish biomass 5x (^[5]).
• 2017: The Palau Pledge was unveiled — all visitors required to sign an eco-pledge stamped into their passport upon entry, the first such program worldwide (^[6]).

Jellyfish Lake Crisis

Jellyfish Lake, one of the world’s most iconic underwater photography locations, suffered a devastating El Nino drought in 2016. The population crashed from approximately 8 million to under 300,000–600,000; Palau declared a state of emergency (^[7]). The lake was formally closed to visitors in May 2017 pending scientific assessment (^[8]).

Eric Cheng’s Jellyfish Lake photograph won the National Geographic Traveller/PDN “World in Focus” Wilderness Photography category in 2007 (^[9]).

Events

The Digital Shootout held its 2006 edition in Palau (April 1–11) at Palau Pacific Resort with Sam’s Tours — 25 participants, staff included Berkley White, Eric Cheng, Jim Watt, and Dan Baldocchi (^[10]).

Nick Martorano ran an underwater video workshop at Sam’s Tours in April 2010 (^[11]).

Notable Figures

• Eric Cheng — Founding trip (2001), Jellyfish Lake award winner, Digital Shootout staff
• Berkley White — Digital Shootout Palau co-director
• Tim Rock — Micronesia-based photojournalist; authored Palau guidebooks and coffee-table volumes (^[12])
• Stephen Frink — Invented his SOS safety sausage after being swept out to sea in Palau

References

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