Tubbataha reef condition and marine life?

[Hintermann]

I am going on a liveaboard cruise of Tubbataha reef in April 2016 on the MV Stella Maris Explorer and wanted to know the condition of the reef and what sort of marine life I am likely to see.

Also, has the USS Guardian incident last year made a major difference?

 

[beaverdivers]

We had a group there last May/June. The reef is in excellent condition. It is still a wild nature reserve. My favorite sightings were observing the Giant Trevally, White-tip Reef Sharks and schools of many other species hunting together!

We encountered a nice variety of marine life: Sharks on every dive- Grey reef, white tips; a few sighting of whale sharks & hammerheads. Nice schools of barracuda & jacks. Turtles on most dives; Enormous barrel sponges. Macro life was fair. Unfortunately, no Manta rays! Have they been fished out?

The Guardian incident did not affect our two week trip. We were concerned that our group of ten divers might get water logged after 40 -50 hours of diving in Tubbataha, but it just gave us time to really get to know this special place.

Good Luck & Good Diving!

 

[Hintermann]

Thank you. I am going in the first week of April 2016. I hope that is not too early for the sharks.

I have a feeling that I will see mantas if at all there is the possibility. I seem to have great luck where manta rays are concerned - Maldives, Komodo, Phuket and most recently Raja Ampat. Except for Manta Sandy reef in RA, I saw several manta rays in many sites over the years where they were supposed to be. The best part was in Komodo last June where the young guide got himself completely lost and twice aborted jumping off the dinghy and even considered returning to the boat. I was one of 4 divers and suggested that we jump where we then were and try our luck - we jumped.....right on top of the manta cleaning station!