NeCoMarine.com
Title
NECO Marine
Description
The dive shop started life in a cargo container parked on the shoreline in 1984. Spearheaded by Shallum Etpison and his wife Mandy, the dive shop has grown over the last twenty years into the premier dive operation in Palau, working out of a $3 million dollar facility. NECO Marine is a PADI 5* IDC and Gold Palm facility.
The name originates with Shallum's late father, the former president of Palau, Ngiratkel Etpison, who founded the NECO group of companies in 1945. He started by using a Japanese scrapped generator to make ice candy, later becoming one of the prominent businessmen of Palau. He started the first tourist and sightseeing business in the 1970s, and in 1984 opened Palau Pacific Resort, Palau's most luxurious beach resort.
You realize a true entrepreneurial spirit runs in the Eptison family when the current scope of NECO becomes clear. NECO is a group of over 30 companies, with interests in many others. From dive centers such as NECO Marine and it's sister operations Splash, the live-aboard dive vessel Palau Aggressor II, through Yamaha and Shell dealerships, to bottled water, liquid petroleum gas, construction, and real estate, NECO is one of the largest and most respected companies in Palau.
