May / July 2007
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Earthrace stops in Palau 
Earthrace is a boat built to make a point, she is sleek and sexy and is her own race around the world for a better planet. So what makes this boat so special? Apart from her "head turning" space age looks, she runs purely on Bio Diesel, an eco friendly fuel made from vegetable oil! but before you start running to the nearest McDonalds for their old frying oil, there are a few things to learn first, take a look at this link for more details: Earthrace arrived in Palau on the morning of April 23rd from the Marshall Islands. NECO Marine provided the Earthrace with a pilot to help them navigate through the tricky reefs and secured them to one of our floating docks at the Drop Off Bar & grill. Due to some engine trouble Earthrace finally left Palau Wednesday April 9th, in the evening after receiving that all important piston! For more information on Earthrace and her crew's epic journey, her wave piercing design, engine specs etc... click: http://www.earthrace.net/index.php?section=1 |
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The Hokule'a  
April 1st; Palau welcomed the Hokule'a and Alingano Maisu's arrival from Yap, to complete one more step in their legendary journey from Hawaii through the Pacific Islands to finish in Japan. Both boats were escorted by local states and their traditional Palauan war canoes. NECO Marine helped to host the week's events, which included a huge welcoming ceremony for the crew and the return of Palau's President, Mr. Tommy Remengsau Jnr, who together with Ms. Jennifer Yano, joined the Hokule'a for her trip from Yap. The crossing took 2 days from Yap with favorable weather. The canoes were doecked at NECO Marine and the Drop off bar & Grill, we provided our facilities plus free diving for the crew. Hokule'a was completed and launched by the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS) in 1975. The voyaging canoe was built in order to challenge the notion that Polynesians had discovered and settled the Pacific islands by accident. By building a replica of an ancient voyaging canoe and navigating it from Hawai'i to Tahiti and back without instrument in 1976, PVS showed how it would have been possible for ancient Polynesians to sail and explore the Pacific ocean and settle its islands purposely, as a way of finding new homelands scattered over an oceanic area of ten million square miles, geographically the largest "nation" on earth--larger than Russia. (For a scholarly article on the founding of Polynesian Voyaging Society and the building of Hokule'a, see "The Founding of the Polynesian Voyaging Society" by one of the co-founders, Ben Finney.) Herb Kawainui Kane, another co-founder of PVS, came up with the conceptual design for the canoe, with Kenneth Emory. (For details on how Hokule'a was designed, see Kane's "In Search of the Ancient Polynesian Voyaging Canoe"). The canoe is maintained by hundreds of volunteers, with dry docking before each long voyage. It has two 62-foot hulls; eight `iako, or crossbeams, joining the two hulls; pola, or decking, lashing to the crossbeams between the two hulls; rails along the decking; and two masts. (source: PVS web site) For more information on the voyages and the building of these traditional sailing ships, please go to: http://www.pvs.kcc.hawaii.edc/ |
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No bubbles no limits... 
Joining us this February, along with 2 of his free diving buddies, Dr. Marcus Schrauder And Wolfgang Dafert. Herbert Nitsch, aka "The Flying Fish" is the multiple World champion free diver. Herbert currently holds 18 world records including: Deepest dive in history: 183m/600ft on one single breath He was also the first human to cross the famous arch in the Blue Holes of Dahab on one single breath. Depth: 56m/184ft. Along with teaching NECO staff and local fisherman the basics techniques on breath hold diving; its advantages and disadvantages (although not many - see up close shark action on their blog site) and dangers of breath hold diving and practicing on your own, he also amazed us divers, who are limited by the tanks we carry, by free diving past us going deeper and deeper and so deep we lost sight of him on many occasions! For those of who are familiar with The Blue Holes, this was one of their favorite "playgrounds" for free diving, along with Blue Corner, which gave the guys some awesome fish action, which can also be viewed on their blog site. The guys weren't the only teachers though. Henni Rall, a Spearfishing Champion from South Africa and General Manager of NECO Yamaha, along with some of the local fishermen, had a thing or 2 to teach these guys about spear fishing, Palauan Style! For more information on Herbert's trip to Palau, please click on the following links: |
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The BentProp Project 
Once again the Bent Prop Project paid a visit to Palau (you can set your clocks by them!) For those who are unfamiliar with the Bent Prop Project (www.bentprop.org), it consists of a team of self-funded volunteers, each with essential expertise, who are dedicated to finding and assisting in identifying Americans missing in action (MIA) from World War II. Our primary focus, since 1993, has been on MIAs lost within the Palau Islands. We coordinate our activities with all appropriate Palauan and American agencies. The specific goal of the BentProp Project in Palau is to identify and document possible MIA sites and present them to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) and the Palauan Historical Preservation Office (HPO) so that JPAC may conduct subsequent operations leading to recovery and repatriation of the remains of these MIAs. Working out of Neco Marine during February and March 2007, the PMAN-IX team of the Bentprop Project (including Pat Scannon, Joe Maldangesang; from Neco Marine, Dan O'Brien, Flip Colmer and two new members: Bob Holler and Derek Abbey) conducted a number of searches across Palau this year, both underwater and in the jungles from Babeldaob to Peleliu. In addition, the team continued its interviews of Palauans (eg, elders, hunters and fishermen) who might have information about events or locations of interest from WWII. This year, the team also interacted with both HPO and the JPAC team in Palau. As a result of tthe searches, the PMAN-IX team found and documented two new American crash sites, at least one of which is likely to be a crash site associated with an MIA (see photo above). The team also found and documented three new smaller aircraft debris fields, two of which are likely Japanese and one American (associated with an already known crash site). Finally, the team presented five sites to the JPAC team in Palau (the two American crash sites from PMAN-IX and three other American MIA-related sites from prior BentProp missions) for consideration for possible recovery operations in the future. For the past six years, a documentary film crew, led by producers Jennifer Powers and Dan O'Brien (www.bentstarproject.org) has followed the Bentprop teams amd members in Palau, the US and Japan, as they gathered information, conducted searches and reported results of these searches to official agencies, such as HPO and JPAC, and the families of these MIAs. This year, the world premier of the BentProp documentary, titled "Last Flight Home", took place on Koror, Palau, to a full house of interested viewers. (It since has also been shown successfully at the Memphis International Film Festival.) In summary, this was a very productive year for the BentProp project and its PMAN-IX team. For those of you who are interested in "The Last Flight Home" (its a great movie by the way) please go to www.bentstarproject.org |
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Critter Corner: The chambered Nautilus 
The Chambered nautilus, Nautilus pompilius pompilius (Linnaeus, 1758), often called a living fossil, reaches about 20cm in length. The coiled shell of the Nautilus is thin, smooth and patterned with brown and white markings and can create up to 30 internal chambers, with only the very last chamber been occupied by the animal. As the animal increases in size, it moves to occupy the outermost chamber, leaving a small tube (siphuncle) that runs through small perforations created in each chamber. The nautilus control their buoyancy by passing gas though this tube, which also helps to keep them up right. The Chambered nautilus has about 90 small sucker-less tentacles found on the body close to where it is attached to the shell. This mollusc has eyes but not a cornea or lens. Nautilus and Allonautilus are the last living genera of externally shelled cephalopods. The primitive eyes of the nautilus, are not so effective for finding prey, therefore the animal uses its acute sense of smell to find small fishes and crabs. They are also known to feed on carrion. Nautilus are only in the Pacific Ocean near the Indo-Pacific region. They are often found near the ocean bottom or near coral reefs in waters up to 500m deep, but they travel to shallower waters at night. Now to the sex part... The nautilus, reaches sexual maturity at between 15-20 years of age and reproduces through internal fertilization. The male transfers sperm to the female using 4 of its tentacles through a spermatophore with a protective coating that contains a mass of sperm, which adheres to the female's mantle wall. After the spermatophore is transferred to the female, the coating dissolves and sperm are released. Females then lay fertilized eggs, each about 3.8 cm in length. The shell of the newly hatched Chambered nautilus is about 2.5 cm in diameter. Now if that hasn't impressed you enough already... the chambered Nautilus has been around for at least 500 million years! Want to know more... go to Source; Marine Bio.org, Dr James B Wood; Cephalopod page. |
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photos by Mandy Etpison, Bert Yates, Kevin Davidson, Bhoyet Etpison
designed by The Design Company Palau