Advice for diving Blue Corner in Palau

Blue Corner is Palau’s best known dive site. Divers “hook in” to the bottom at the edge of a drop off and hang in the often strong currents while watching an amazing show of sharks and other large marine life in the distance. Divers can see many different shark species including hammerheads, gray reef sharks, and white tips; as well as mantas, eagle rays, turtles, and there is often a large school of barracuda near the corner.

Most divers use a reef hook for this dive which is a metal hook that looks like a large fishing hook connected to a line that is then attached to the BCD. Some dive shops provide these and others have them for sale. Once at Blue Corner divers find a rock to hook into and they inflate their BCDs just slightly. This allows them to be attached to the bottom but slightly floating in the current (and not crashing into the bottom.)

The currents at Blue Corner vary throughout the day and throughout the moon cycle. Dive shops know the best times to dive it and get the most current. The more current there is, the more action that is usually seen although even when there isn’t much current there is still a lot of action.

Once divers start getting low on air they deflate the extra air from their BCD and use the line to pull themselves down to the hook. After unhooking the current takes the divers on a drift dive down a beautiful channel with lots of coral and reef fish and eventually divers ascent to 15ft to do their safety stop and send up a safety sausage or marker before going to the surface where a boat will pick them up.

Besides the large animal action at the corner the dive site has abundant coral and fish life and plenty else to see. Large schools of reef fish are common on the top of the wall, there bottom has hard and soft corals, sponges and anemones with friendly napoleon wrasse regularly hanging around.

Blue Corner is about an hour boat ride from Koror and can be dived year round. When conditions are right sometime the dive starts at Blue hole, a large cavern in the wall, from which divers then drift dive to Blue Corner and then hook-in.

Because of the strong currents, drifting, and hooking in, Blue Corner will be best enjoyed by divers with some advanced diving experience.

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