The dive site German Channel is at least as famous as the Blue Corner. This is mainly due to the fact that the German Channel is considered THE Manta Hot Spot in Palau. And on the other hand, maybe a little because of his story, how it came about and how he got his name.
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Where does the channel get its name from?
What many don’t know: Palau was once a German colony. To be precise, for at least 15 years. In 1899, the German Empire bought the colony of Palau from the Spanish at a spot price and made it part of the then imperial protected area German New Guinea. Later, at the beginning of the First World War, Palau was left almost without a fight to the Japanese. At that time – in 1909 – the Germans blew up a narrow, approximately 1 km long road into the coral reef inorder to shorten the transport route from the island of Angaur, which lies outside the reef and on which phosphate was mined, to the port in Koror. Today, the German Channel brings the many dive boats faster and easier to the southwestern outer reef, where, for example, the dive sites Blue Corner and the Blue Holes are located.
No manta far and wide
On the German Channel we dived whole 3 times and unfortunately we have not seen a single manta far and wide. Really a pity, because – as already mentioned – this is THE manta spot par excellence in Palau, because there are some cleaning stations here. Maybe we were there at the wrong time? But no, from October to May is supposedly manta season… exactly our travel time. But apparently everyone hid from us 🙂
And so we spent most of our time in the German Channel waiting at the various cleaning stations.
The underwater world at the German Channel
The dive site itself extends over a sandy bottom, diving at a depth of about 15 to 25 meters. Even though we haven’t seen manta rays, there were other beautiful things we were happy about: such as several reef sharks, a large stingray lying calmly on the ground, turtles, giant pusherfish, Napoleon lipfish and majestic-looking firefish.
The highlight of our dives was on the one hand the large schools of fish and a sleeping leopard shark, which we have never seen before.
But stop: We saw a manta! In the morning while driving by speedboat to one of the dive spots just north of the German Channel! Only for about 10 seconds… but there are the mantas in Palau 😉
Our videos of diving in Palau
In total we did 17 dives with the diving school Fish ‘n Fins on Palau and here you can see some of our videos.
All travelogues from Palau
The islands of Palau, together with Blue Corner and the German Channel, are among the most beautiful and interesting dive sites in the world. And the fantastic pictures of the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Rock Islands have certainly been seen by many on the Internet or in reports on TV. We spent a total of 12 days on Palau and got to know the island paradise both above and under water.
» Palau – Travel Guide, Diving & Things to Do» Palau – Entry & Exit (Visa) at Koror Airport
» Koror – The Palau Royal Resort on Malakal Island
» Diving with the diving school Fish ‘n Fins
» The Rock Islands in Palau & Infos about Jellyfish Lake
» The Blue Corner – Diving with Sharks & Napoleon Lip Fish
» The German Channel – Diving at the Manta Hotspot
» Jake Seaplane – Diving at the Plane Wreck
» Palau – Diving in the island paradise of Micronesia
» Peleliu – Diving on Palau Island
» Peleliu – Historical tour of the old battlefields in World War II
» Palau – Our Self-Guided Day Tour of Babeldaob Island
» Palau – Scenic Flight over the Rock Islands & Seventy Islands