Palau

The warm waters of Palau, a small archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, hold perhaps the richest and most biologically diverse coral reefs on the planet. In this "cradle of diversity," marine biologists have recorded 700 species of corals and 1,500 species of fish.

Palau's coral reefs began to grow millions of years ago when coral polyps colonized submerged volcanic mountains. The tiny polyps produced a material that cemented them in place. Side by side, they built hard, external skeletons around their soft bodies, and when they died, other corals built skeletons on top of them. Geologic forces eventually raised the coral topped mountains above the sea, and all the exposed corals died. In time, new colonies built more reefs on the islands undersea slopes.

Today, divers swimming over the coral gardens of Ngemelis Island are moved by nature's artistry and creativity. The top of this reef, just a few feet below the surface, resembles wild flowers swaying in the breeze. Here, soft coral trees and bushes seem to have been painted in stunning shades of green, red, yellow, and orange.

Among the many fish species fluttering around gracefully are yellow butterflyfish, blue-headed wrasses, and emperor angelfish-black masked and striped. Not so graceful, though, is the mango-size puffer, a fish that sucks in water when startled and inflates its body to the size of a football. Sharp spikes stick out in all directions and are quite a deterrent to potential predators. Another cumbersome swimmer is the pear-sized trunkfish, whose tough, trunklike body is difficult for predators to chew.

Nestled among the Ngemelis corals are giant clams. These two- or three-foot-long creatures, depicted in early movies as being able to grab divers' feet, feed harmlessly on plankton-not divers. And poking ever so slightly out of cracks in the corals are green and red brittle stars. Related to sea stars, these animals grow arms that break off easily if bitten by predators or touched by scuba divers. Brittle stars hide until sundown, but at night they crawl out, spread their arms, and feed on plankton.

Sometimes the best way to observe fish is to find a sandy patch, settle down, and wait, letting them get accustomed to you. And a good technique for finding a particular kind of fish is to look from right to left, rather than left to right-the usual way in which people view things. Looking in this manner slows down the viewing process and increases the odds of sighting an animal.

Not difficult to spot are watermelon-size cuttlefish hovering in the water. Related to the octopus and squid, these members of the cephalopod group can change their colors, patterns, and shapes so that they sometimes look like floating plants or free-swimming octopuses, their arms tickling unseen objects. Another master at deception is the crocodilefish. A lie-in-wait predator, this three-foot-long fish has an uncanny resemblance to its reptilian namesake.

Little About Bermuda Triangle

Bermuda Triangle is a Northwestern Atlantic oceanic region between Bermuda, Miami, Florida, San Juan and Puerto Rico. Bermuda Triangle is the greatest modern mistry of modern world before our science. The Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil’s Triangle is the region in which a number of aircrafts and surface vessels have disappeared. Modern science claimed that these disappearences fall beyond the boundries of human error or acts of nature. Popular culture has attributed some of these disappearences to the paranormal, a suspension of the law of physics or activity by extraterrestrial beings. Though a substantial documentation exists showing numerous incidents to have been inaccurately reported or embellished by later authors, and numerous official agencies have gone on record as stating the number and nature of disappearances to be similar to any other area of ocean, many have remained unexplained despite considerable investigation.

The Triangle Region

The boundaries of the Triangle vary with the author; some stating its shape is akin to a trapezoid covering the Straits of Florida, the Bahamas and the entire Caribbean island area and the Atlantic east to the Azores; others add to it the Gulf of Mexico. The more familiar, triangular boundary in most written works has as its points somewhere on the Atlantic coast of Florida, San Juan, Puerto Rico; and the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda, with most of the accidents concentrated along the southern boundary around the Bahamas and the Florida Straits. The area is one of the most heavily-sailed shipping lanes in the world, with ships crossing through it daily for ports in the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean Islands. Cruise ships are also plentiful, and pleasure craft regularly go back and forth between Florida and the islands. It is also a heavily flown route for commercial and private aircraft heading towards Florida, the Caribbean and South America from points north. The Gulf Stream ocean current flows through the Triangle after leaving the Gulf of Mexico; its current of five to six knots may have played a part in a number of disappearances. Sudden storms can and do appear, and in the summer to late fall hurricanes strike the area. The combination of heavy maritime traffic and tempestuous weather makes it inevitable that vessels could founder in storms and be lost without a trace – especially before improved telecommunications, radar and satellite technology arrived late in the 20th century

Bermuda Triangle In History

“The region involved, a watery triangle bounded roughly by Florida, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico, measures less than a thousand miles on any one side.”

. . .So George X. Sand introduced the Triangle to his readers in October 1952 in a short article for Fate magazine, entitled “Sea Mystery at our Back Door.” Sand’s article recounted the latest disappearance (the Sandra in 1950) and went on to discuss some of the other recent baffling mysteries like NC16002, Star Tiger and Star Ariel, aside from devoting most of the article to Flight 19.The Triangle remained a colloquial expression throughout the 1950s, employed by locals when another disappearance or unexplained crash happened. By the early 1960s, it had acquired the name The Deadly Triangle. In his 1962 book, Wings of Mystery, author Dale Titler also devoted pages in Chapter 14— “The Mystery of Flight 19″— to recounting the most recent incidents of disappearances and even began to ponder theories, such as electromagnetic anomalies and the ramifications of Project Magnet. His book would set the temper for Triangle discussions thereafter. (Just in April 1962 Allan W. Eckert had written a sensational piece in the American Legion Magazine on Flight 19 ((“The Mystery of the Lost Patrol”)) which introduced some of the most popular but erroneous dialogue purported coming from Flight 19, including lines like the ocean looks strange, all the compasses are going haywire, and that they could not make out any directions, “everything is strange.” This became a may pole for electromagnetic discussions).