Eight Chinese scuba divers and their dive guide have been rescued after drifting at sea for more than 24 hours off the Pacific islands of Palau.
The divers were reported missing just before midday on Sunday, 26 December following a dive at Peleliu Corner, a popular dive site off Peleliu Island known for its strong currents.
A collaborative search and rescue operation involving the Koror and Peleliu state rangers, Palau’s Division of Marine Law Enforcement (DMLE), and private boat operators was launched – but initially headed in the wrong direction.
‘Based on previous dive incidents at the same site,’ DMLE Chief Temedik Ngireblekuu told Palau’s Island Times, ‘We initially focused the search to the south, between Angaur and the southwest islands.’
‘In the last incident, the divers were found south between Angaur and the southwest island within hours,’ Ngireblekuu added, ‘which shows how fast the current can be.’
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Drift modelling by the US Coast Guard’s Joint Rescue Sub-Center (JRSC), which became involved once the search expanded beyond Palau’s territorial waters, however, suggested that the dive team had most likely been pushed to the north, redirecting search efforts in the opposite direction.
The divers were located approximately 50 km (30 miles) to the northwest of Pelelieu by Jerome Sakurai, a Palauan private boat operator who told Island Times that he had been ‘driving northwards in parallel’ with three other private boats when he spotted the divers’ SMB shortly after 2 pm on Friday, 27 December.
Chief Ngireblekuu said it was ‘the first time that the divers were found north instead of south’.
The divers were transported to Koror and then to Belau National Hospital for medical evaluations, where each was declared to be in good health and subsequently discharged.
Peleliu Corner is located at the southern tip of Peleliu Island, positioned at the convergence of the oceanic currents that flow around the Palau archipelago. The immensely strong current makes it a dive site for experienced divers only, and there have been a number of incidents over the years.
In 2006, two Japanese divers spent nearly 30 hours adrift after being pushed out to sea by the current and in 1994, six Japanese divers died after being swept off the Corner – three of whom were never found.
