Dive site diversity in Philippines

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Hello: I am just curious about the way Philippines is marketed as a dive destination. Philippines seems to have a lot of dive resorts in different locations and some resorts are marketed as "macro" while others as "whale shark" and "reef diversity" and "big animals locations" etc. Geographically they are not so far apart where the diving locale would be so radically different. Is this just marketing / advertising or do you really have so much diversity from location to location that you could dive Philippines all your life and every vacation would be radically different in terms of what you would encounter?

Id love to hear comparison of sites from people who have dived in different locations in Philippines. Thanks.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Well for starters, the PI as part of a region is at the northern apex of the Coral Triangle.
Coral Triangle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Well for starters, the PI as part of a region is at the northern apex of the Coral Triangle.
Coral Triangle - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Really? WOW!

Anything else?

 

[Centrals]

You get 30 days visa free entry to the country.
Places to look for(my suggestion):
Anilao(macro), Coron(wrecks), Malapascua(thresher shark, devil ray), Puerto Galera + Verde Island(coral), Tubbataha(coral and pelagic), Southern Leyte[coral + whaleshark(seasonal)].
Diversify: just compare Anilao and Verde Island drop off which is 2hrs apart by slow boat.
I am pretty sure others will chip in with their preferences.

You really have to go and see with your own eyes.
A month in Philippines and another month in Indonesia.

 

[drbill]

I've only dived Anilao and Sabang/Puerto Galera but the two were quite different. There was also a fair degree of site diversity within the two regions. I think labeling each differently was justified in my limited experience.

 

[Damselfish]

Aside from the coral triangle aspect, the Philippines cover a pretty big area - you could barely drop them in the Caribbean basin. Plenty of room for variety!

 

[supergaijin]

Over 7000 islands. 22500 miles of coastline (4th in the world)
Some volcanic in origin, some from ancient coral reefs themselves.
1150 miles from north to south.
Part of the Golden Triangle to have escaped relatively unscathed from the last ice age.
Scene of WWII naval bombings.
Cave systems.
Proximity to the deepest trench in the earth.


Yeah there is some diversity.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

Thanks a lot folks. I believe there is some confusion from my use of the term "diversity." By diversity I do not mean how many dive sites are available but how different are those from each other in terms of the marine life you encounter.

This question came about because an LDS that I frequently deal with did their 5th trip to Philippines and the owner was telling me that Bonaire is great diving and also has a long coastline but after a week of diving in Bonaire you wont see anything that you have not already seen. With Philippines you are going to one of the cheaper places in the world and every island is as different from the other in terms of coral, colors and marine life as anything else.

From the responses that I am seeing here and from the way dive packages are advertised, it seems that they are no BSing.

 

[Makhno]

In my experience (5 or 6 trips to the Philippines) there is a lot of diversity. Tubbataha has good walls, reef sharks and turtles on almost every dive, big schools of snappers, trevallies, fusiliers and occasional tunas and occasional big rays and other bigger pelagics passing through. Not great for macro critters due to mostly being vertical walls. Puerto Galera has good reefscapes, good reef fish abundance and some good macro life; not a lot of big animals or schooling pelagics in my experience. Apo Reef is sort a hybrid cross between Tubbataha and Puerto Galera -- good reefs, also walls with whitetip reef sharks and turtles most dives (a couple small wrecks too). Subic Bay is all about wrecks; not good vis and not good marine life, comparatively. Coron is great for WW2 wrecks, some of which have good marine life (nudis and other macro life on some shallower wrecks, schooling pelagics passing by the deeper ones like the Irako, etc.) Malapascua seems a bit special because it has loads of diversity all by itself, all within a short boat ride: reefs, great macro & muck, wrecks, big animals (the famous thresher sharks of course but also devil rays, whitetip sharks, etc).

Next year I hope to check out Anilao (for macro critters) and southern Leyte (for different macro critters) and would like to go back to Coron and include a saltwater cave or two near Palawan.

So yeah, lots of different kinds of diving, and I've just barely scratched the surface.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

 

[mlsantos]

Hi there sinbad… The philippines actually is pretty diverse if you take the time out to see all of it… theres much for those who are into that and bigstuff for those that want a rush… we can also say we are the only place in the world where youre assured a thresher shark interaction and a whaleshark interaction within a van rid of each other. For more detailed info check out my blog Scuba Diving the Philippines Indepth... and the dive travel segment of my website www.bluewaterexpeditions.net for more detailed info….