Page 320 - Micronesia
P. 320
Y ap’s barrier reef is among the healthiest and 30 ft./3 and 10m and plunging vertically seas are alive with clown fish and turquoise
in the Pacific and these southern sites, to several hundred feet. The visibility along parrotfish. Most of the resorts offer dive or
which drop to 120 feet from the turquoise the outer reefs usually exceeds 100 ft./30m snorkel packages, as well as cultural tours to
inner lagoon, are not to be missed. Hard on a daily basis. Channel entrances are also local villages. You can even sail on tradi-
plate corals, staghorn and cabbage corals, a favorite and done on an incoming tidal tional outrigger canoes, the same seaworthy
as well as invertebrates like crinoids and flow, the current entices schooling reef fish vessels the Yapese have been navigating for
anemones, are populated by bumphead and larger predators alike. Some of these thousands of years. The canoes are beau-
parrotfish, lionfish, five species of clownfish, locations are great for macro photography. tifully hand-carved and decorated with
pyramid butterflyfish and unlikely pelag- Although most guests want to see mantas geometric designs. Divers are still unearth-
ics scouting the outer edge of intersecting first and foremost, the reefs and walls are ing new discoveries, both among the island’s
currents. The visibility, consistently over 100 pretty fantastic dives as well, and most folks waters where an intact B-52 bomber remains
feet, makes it easy to spot passing sharks are glad they planned an extra day or two to hidden and also 100 miles northeast of Yap
or dolphins drawn unexpectedly from the dive some of these “little-known” treasures. on Ulithi Atoll. The 553-foot U.S.S. Yap has
depths. Yap’s reefs and walls are teeming Sharks are quite common sights on the outer several wreck sites that, although their loca-
with a myriad of tropical marine life and reef, as are schooling reef fish, moray eels, tions are known, very little is understood
specimens. On the eastern side of the island sea turtles, stingrays and pods of dolphins as to the history behind such watery fates.
group, which is also the windward side, the and pilot whales in the deeper water en Ships, planes, barges and ammunitions are
reefs are sloping at an angle, with a pla- route to these sites. scattered among the vast reef system.
teau at about 30 ft. / 10 m and progressing
deeper to several hundreds of feet deep. The T he snorkeling is equally rewarding here,
walls are on the southern and western sides particularly in the area around Manta
of Yap, with the top of the reef between 10 Bay Channel and along the inner reef; the
