I have never been to the pacific apart from Costa Rica and Australia ...

I was wondering if anyone could let me in on some islands that are just fantastic for photography.

I have looked at Palau, Vanuatu, Maldives and the Hawaiin Islands.

anyone know anything about these places for ?

Hello Giles,

I strongly recommend Eric’s travel reports. He has documented his travels very well with a Nikon Coolpix 990. You can get a clue about the marine life as well. Here is are the links:

Palau, Micronesia http://www.echeng.com/travel/palau/
Bora Bora, French Polinesia http://www.echeng.com/travel/bora/

enjoy them…

hi,

you could get some really nice pics in palau. with an abundant source of subject matter from sea fans and soft corals to sharks and rays, it is tops. if you are interested in cavern images there is a easy dive just off sams tours called chandelier caverns. last week the highpoint of our trip was a spotted eagle ray just hovering at new drop off the whole time. if that weren’t enough, a hammerhead shark showed up for a pass or two.

yap has the famed manta rays and some decent wall diving. the dive operation at yap divers could use a little polish on customer service skills but otherwise a good time. a special dive in yap is the mandarinfish dive done at dusk. lots of staghorn corals populated by 30-40 mandarinfish each. the best part is the depth...5-10 feet. so, one could burn a tank for about 2.5 hours and swaping out memory cards.

guam has diving but pales in comparison to yap or palau.

chuuk is another great spot in the south pacific. going myself soon. the entire site is wreck dives from WWII operation sinking japanese fleet. lots of nudibranchs from what i hear. also lots of wreckage intact inside the cargo holds.

I just got back from 2 weeks in Cocos and Malpelo and I would very highly recommend both.  If anything, the wildlife in Malpelo is even BETTER than in Cocos although in our trip the visibility was not that great in Malpelo.  Schools of hammerheads, eagle rays by the dozens, mantas.  The entire island is infested with giant morays as well # we had 7 heads sticking out of a single crevice # it was an amazing sight to see.  We also had a wonderful baitball action (apparently the fifth they’ve seen there all year) with dolphins, silkies, red snappers, rainbow runners, tunas and bootie birds going wild on a shoal of sardines about 2 miles from the shore.  Diving with hundreds of silkies so near the baitball was a memory that I will never forget.

Took some amazing pics & video footage.  The trip was with the Seahunter vessel.

Murat

Hi, check out Bali. that’s still Indian Ocean but hard on the border to the Pacific. There really is lots n’ lots to discover and to photograph ! check out my photo pages with images taken mainly on Bali’s east coast dive sites. http://www.waterworxbali.com/English/Photos1.htm

have fun

Wolfgang

If you are going to be in Bali, consider coming to East Timor.  The diving and photo ops are awesome.  I can only compare East Tmor to Bunaken, Manado and can say that for corals, this place is better.  Also, it seemed that the currents around Bunaken island were very fast at times.  I went in October and it may be a seasonal thing.  Although we have our share of days with current, nothing like the rippers around Bunaken.

The greatest challnege here is catching the subject before it takes off to hide in the abundant coral. 

Try Timor you’ll like it.  Daily flights from Denpasar, Bali for ~$250 round trip.

Nick

The big problem I’ve had with traveling to pacific islands is the cost. Guam acts as something of a hub for the region, and isn’t served by too many airlines from the USA. There’s something of a “lock” on traffic there, then, and the cost of tickets seems to reflect this attitude. But shop carefully… Roundtrip tickets from San Francisco to Hong Kong or Tokyo, and THEN roundtrip from there to Guam, can save you $500. Maybe more.

Although I have only been to the Hawaiin Islands, I have been to Australia, as well as the Red Sea, Indian Ocean off from S.A., Atlantic and Carribean.
We visited Hawaii after Australia and found that there was allot to do topside in Hawaii but diving is what I would not say is the greatest. It is good but your other choices are much better for underwater photo. We were quite dissapointed with diving of from the Big Island and Maui, we also went to Molokini Crater which I would say was the best that I have seen in Hawaii.... which wasn’t that great compared to the Carribean in places like Little Cayman or Turks & Caicos or Cozumel. And compared to the Red Sea and the Coral Sea......Hawaii was trash :>( , sorry to say.

Check out the Solomon Islands.  Big schools of barracuda and big-eyed jacks.  Can only do this on a live aboard.  Also
Layang-Layang off the NW coast of Borneo.  Fananstic coral gardens and schooling hammerhead.  You will be disappointed in the Hawaiian Is.  The water is cooler, not much coral and definitely not the amount of fish as in Palau, the Solomons or Layang-Layang.  I lived in Hawai for 4 years and did most of my diving elsewhere.

You should definitely go to the Phillipinnes either dumaguate of puerto galera they are both fantastic the resort i recommend for both is atlantis beach resort