A couple weeks, Malapascua or Sogod, which would you choose?

[dirtfarmer]

Sogod Bay: The wall at Napantao is really beautiful and healthy. !

It seems to me that due to dynamite fishing, that the walls of the PI are much more prolific with life, beautiful, than flat area's. Here in Malapascua my favorite site so far has been "deep rock" a flat topped pinnacle. The vertical part of the rock is profuse with life, the horzintal has lots of soft coral, hydroids and sponges and the hard coral is small and starting to grow back. The most lacking part of the ecosystem here is fish, virtually no large ones, and few small reef fish. Gato Island had lot's of soft coral, but mostly in a monoculture, and very little hard coral, and fish.
Apo Island has been protected from dynamite fishing so it had ( I was last there in '09) large healthy hard coral gardens, and large amounts of small reef fish, and a large school of jacks.

On this trip so far the best divesite for profusion of coral habitat and fish has been Sombrero Island in the Anilao area.

I know that there is a balance between fishermen feeding their families and maintaining healthy diverse ecosystems. My hope is in the long run both can be done.

 

[rob1967]

Mark, I have been to both Malapascua and Southern Leyte, and it is difficult to decide which is better. Perhaps the edge goes to Malapascua, because I am actually headed back there again first week of March.

You mentioned that you don't mind paying a little extra for transport, so in that case I might suggest it could be possible to do both destinations while only losing one day of travel in between. The way to do this is to charter a private banka to take you direct from Malapascua across to the western side of Leyte, I believe San Isidro would be the port (I know that Matt at Evolution can arrange this). You would then have to pre-arrange a driver to pick you up from San Isidro to take you direct to your resort in Southern Leyte. Probably your resort in Southern Leyte would be willing to arrange this for you.

Dirtfarmer, I would perhaps reword your last statement. For fisherman to feed their families today and tomorrow, they must maintain sustainable fishing practices. Dynamiting the reef is illegal, immoral, and ecological suicide. Any fisherman who thinks it is necessary to dynamite the reef in order to feed their families must be educated to understand otherwise, or put in jail. They are either extremely ignorant, or just downright criminal.

 

[Centrals]

It seems to me that due to dynamite fishing, that the walls of the PI are much more prolific with life, beautiful, than flat area's. Here in Malapascua my favorite site so far has been "deep rock" a flat topped pinnacle. The vertical part of the rock is profuse with life, the horzintal has lots of soft coral, hydroids and sponges and the hard coral is small and starting to grow back. The most lacking part of the ecosystem here is fish, virtually no large ones, and few small reef fish. Gato Island had lot's of soft coral, but mostly in a monoculture, and very little hard coral, and fish.

Is ther any dynamite fishing around Gato Island?
As for lack of fish! The latest National Geographic Feb 2105 edition shown that the population of Philippines has increased from 39m in the 70's to 93m nowadays!

 

[dirtfarmer]

Dirtfarmer, I would perhaps reword your last statement. For fisherman to feed their families today and tomorrow, they must maintain sustainable fishing practices. Dynamiting the reef is illegal, immoral, and ecological suicide. Any fisherman who thinks it is necessary to dynamite the reef in order to feed their families must be educated to understand otherwise, or put in jail. They are either extremely ignorant, or just downright criminal.

Rob you might have misunderstood that I was approving of dynamite fishing. When I talked of the balance of fishermen feeding their families and maintaining a healthy diverse ecosystem, I was meaning that some people think that fishermen should all work in the tourism industry and give up fishing for their food and income. There is quite simply not enough jobs in tourism to employ all the fishermen. Growing populations all over the world are struggling to provide for themselves with fishing. What is needed most is education in sustainable fishing practices, and support transitioning to those practices. There is definitely no room for dynamite fishing in sustainable fishery's. It makes me sick to see destroyed reefs-habitats. It's robbing peter to pay paul.

Centrals, I saw no sign of recent dynamite fishing around Gato Island, yet I heard multiple explosions while diving. I was shocked at the lack of small fish in the area. There is simply not enough diversity/shelter in the ecosystem for the small fish in my opinion, as I am not a marine biologist just a simple organic farmer. I have made it apractice of donating 100% of my Thanksgiving farmers market sales ( my biggest sales market of the year) for 7 years to Heifer International, an organization that helps people all over the world not only feed themselves but raise themselves out of poverty with sustainable farming practices. To me for the growing populations all over the world, sustainability is the only course of action. The Pope was recently in the PI and was quoted that "people don't have to breed like rabbits" which is good news for the PI with 80% of the population being Roman Catholic.

 

[eagerbeaver]

I stayed out of this relatively simple "which is better" discussion as I am biased as a business owner in Malapascua. However now the fishing debate is open I just wanted to point out that in the last 6 months Malapascua has seen very positive steps forwards in the defence of it's marine life. In combination with Green Fins, the Malapascua Marine Protection Fund(Proactive diveshop group), the Dive guide Association and the Local Government has been working on a number of initiatives to protect against illegal fishing and to protect the dive sites as well as the sustainability of fishing for the local people to be able to feed their families. So although you will hear dynamite, and the fish population needs help, you can rest assured that we are doing everything we can to help this situation.

How can you help as a visiting diver? Start by not kicking the coral and getting your buoyancy under control, but also try and ensure that the shop you choose to dive with is a member of and active donor to the MMPF which funds various activities from illegal fishing protection to new mooring lines and local community information drives about sustainable fishing techniques.

Markmaloof, if you need help organising transport or something then feel free to send me a message and we can discuss your options.

Thanks!

 

[Mantra]

We have dove both sites. We had a TERRIBLE experience with Sogod Bay Scuba Resort. The Australian owner lied to us about dive conditions, lost some of our gear and refused to compensate us (only agreed to give us a partial refund but promised he would take that refund out of the boat crews pay) etc etc. Go with Pete's if you are in the area. We found the diving there average by Philippine standards. Malapascua on the other hand we thought offered a wonderful variety of sites and terrain. The Dona Marilyn wreck followed by gato island is one of my all time favorite double dive days. Mandarin fish. Good macro. Hammerheads. And of course the Threshers. We dive with Matt (above) at evolution and had a flawless experience. Bohol was OK. Moalboal is surprisingly diverse and great night diving on the house reef at blue abyss there. Dauin (combo of macro and apo island) was spectacular and Mike's shop there is excellent. Last time we were over we did a fortnight just in Anilao with tim's photography backpacker place and the macro diving there was unparalleled. Plus shallow (10m or so) diving made for many 2hr+ dives. The Philippines are incredible. Personally I would skip Sogod altogether if you only have a fortnight and beware Sogod Bay Scuba Resort. Worst experience we have ever had with a dive shop and we really WANTED to like them.

 

[Centrals]

The Pope was recently in the PI and was quoted that "people don't have to breed like rabbits" which is good news for the PI with 80% of the population being Roman Catholic.

Unfortunately Philippines is still regarding family planning as evil sin! The Catholic Church is too influential there!!!

 

[FT]

Centrals asked: Is there dynamite fishing around Gato Island?
Exactly there, in 2013, we experienced (a) finding a bottle with a candy-striped unexploded dynamite stick in it and later (b) feeling that sickening WHUMP of a nearby dynamite explosion.
We were told that Gato is far enough from Malapascua that it is difficult to police. But I well believe Matt when he says the local conservation efforts are picking up steam.

 

[dirtfarmer]

I stayed out of this relatively simple "which is better" discussion as I am biased as a business owner in Malapascua. However now the fishing debate is open I just wanted to point out that in the last 6 months Malapascua has seen very positive steps forwards in the defence of it's marine life. In combination with Green Fins, the Malapascua Marine Protection Fund(Proactive diveshop group), the Dive guide Association and the Local Government has been working on a number of initiatives to protect against illegal fishing and to protect the dive sites as well as the sustainability of fishing for the local people to be able to feed their families. So although you will hear dynamite, and the fish population needs help, you can rest assured that we are doing everything we can to help this situation.

Your restraint in the "which is better" is admirable, and respected. I did not use Evolution for diving as I felt it was to far from my hotel, but I loved the food at Craic House!
It definitely is up to dive shops to educate and implement sustainable practices working with local fishermen. I've often thought that it really takes the locals working in the industry working as liaisons for programs. Taking local leaders diving to show them the differences/damages from dynamite fishing firsthand could make a big impact.

 

[jbb]

Well I've now been to Malapascua 15 times (over ten years) and Sogod 1 but that's just me. It is hard to find dive sites as diverse as you can near Malapascua Island. Walls, wrecks, sandy bottoms, sunken rocks, small island with a cave swim thru, sunken shoals and even at the right time of year just dive the blue for hammerhead sharks. All of these sites can't be great all the time but I've always enjoyed this variety of underwater geography every day of diving. I really hope they can get the explosive fishing stopped as we saw evidence of dead fish at the Chocolate Island site on my visit in November last year but it was still impressive with a variety of macro critters such as eel, nudibranchs, pipefish, etc. If they could convince the local politicians and fishermen that providing protected areas for fish as you find at Apo Island, Alona Beach and Dauin will keep them in more and larger fish than using indiscriminate underwater blasting. I found that those early thresher shark dives tend to take a toll on me if I don't temper the evening San Miguel's;-)