Palau's world famous Blue Corner dive was spectacular

This area was a cleaning station for the turtles as they would rub their shells on the bottom of rocks; every turtle we saw had a perfectly clean shell

Gray reef shark; in 2009, Palau created the world's first shark sanctuary when they banned commercial shark fishing in their territorial waters (a size similar to France)

Blackfin barracuda; fruitbat soup is considered a delicacy in Palau and is made using fruit bats, coconut milk, ginger, and spices

Despite sharks everywhere, this bluespine unicornfish is more interested in me; we hooked ourselves to rocks to watch the underwater show in the strong current

This photo captures the terrific seascape of Palau with turtles, reef fish, hard and soft corals all in a rainbow of colors; Palau is a 2 1/2 hour flight from Manila or 4 1/2 from Tokyo

Oriental sweetlips; the Palau constitution bans the use, storage and disposal of nuclear, toxic chemical, gas and biological weapons

Green Bumphead Parrotfish; the rainy season is July to October although there is no true dry season as the country averages 150 inches of rain annually

Palau has become the first country to ban mass market sunscreen products (starting 1/1/20) which are toxic to coral reefs; if you attempt to bring them in, they will be confiscated at the airport

I'd like to think that I wasn't getting the stink eye from this turtle; there were lots of turtles here and they didn't seemed bothered by our presence

We saw lots of reef sharks sleeping here; they have structures called spiracles which allow them to breathe while they are lying on the ocean bottom

The bigeye trevally is commonly found in large slow moving schools during the day, becoming active at night when it feeds, eating a variety of fish, crustaceans, cephalopods and other invertebrates

Lowfin chub; the distinctive flag of Palau features a full moon in yellow against a light blue background

Whip coral; the sunniest months in Palau are March, April and May with June having the fewest hours of sunshine

Pinnate spadefish; Palau is one of the few independent nations of the world that lack an army but, through a compact, the US is responsible for defending Palau against foreign invasions

The bumphead parrotfish can grow to 5 ft long and weigh 165 lbs; this species is the largest herbivorous fish inhabiting coral reefs