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High Desert is absolutely right, there are ferries that run either overnight from Manado to Tahuna on Sangihe Island or during the day. The difference is price and length of travelling time. The day ferry is faster taking 5-6 hours with an air con first class section and you have the...

Very sad news. Deepest sympathies to friends and relatives of Aksel Isaksen.

Well Mike, take's one to know one. Regarding Mindanao, the situation is complicated here and sometimes very dangerous. It gets more complicated and more dangerous when areas are militarised by politicians - as is now known to the outside world. The area around Southpoint at the side of...

I got told that there is now an army battalion stationed on the site of the proposed power plant just 1/2 mile from Southpoint Divers. They are there to protect the investments of the Governor's family, Toyota (Japan) and Thailands's EGCO (Thailands national power company) who are investors in...

Paul has good location for the Kamanga Coal Plant threatening the marine protected area. Maasim reef is very nice for coral and marine life at the moment, so good time to go before the area is finished. The further sites along the coast (Kiamba and Maitum) are best dived with John Heitz and...

In the Philippines, coral reefs have zero value as opposed to 'development'. Normally in Mindanao, the word 'development' is proceded by 'peace'. Destroying the food source of thousands/destroying 100's hectares of arable land is hardly for peace or development though. What is really...

Good luck with the changing weather. I hope you have nice conditions.

Chris and John can say more, but I heard that WWF Philippines and International Climate Change Managers had good dives. They saw plenty turtle, napoleon wrasse and great coral just where the coal landing jetty is going to be built by Conal Holdings (the Governors family).

Fifty two sharks have been released into the Kamanga Marine Protected Area. This is down to John (jr. dm.) and Chris (GensanChris) with some help from local divers. It is good and proper that WWF Philippines are now taking a real interest in the area and are opposing the proposed coal plant on...

In our experience, best places are always away from river sources and on the ocean side of islands. Again, I understand that southern leyte has excellent reefs and can have good viz. The area also benefits from lack of mass divers who can/do can wreck corals. If you are a very serious diver...

Choose a place with the finest coral reefs that you can find. This is what the Coral Triangle is all about and will not last forever. Southern Leyte is supposed to be good. Bohol has some nice corals. Apo island is good also. Best corals I have seen are in remote places in Mindanao. Bring...

Great that Lupit changed couse at the last second and moved away from the Philippines. But, more bad news. Tropical depression 23W is headed this way and, though a long way off, the long range forecasts are not good. See http://www.usno.navy.mil/NOOC/nmfc-ph/RSS/jtwc/warnings/wp2309.gif

Yes it is, and this was forcast 3 months ago if you follow the En Nino posted info. Sea temps in the Western equitorial Pacific are +0.7 to +1.0C above normal in the top 300meters (1000 feet US). This typhoon will hit Luzon with high winds and drop 500mm+ rain. As per OP's words, it will be...

There is presently around 10% chance of a direct stike on Manila. IMO, it's time to take precautions and stock up.

All models are now forcasting landfall of Typhoon Lupit in Northern Luzon on Wednesday. This typhoon is currently catagory 2, but is expected to become catagory 4. See http://www.typhoon2000.ph/activetrack.gif

As you know jr. dm., we are not diving a lot at the moment due to the speight of 'incidents' involving spearos in the area, so we have had a good chance to review our thousands of photos from all the places we have dived in the PI's and SE Asia. With respect to my good Indonesian friends from...

Best site is Typhoon 2000 http://www.typhoon2000.ph/ BTW, 22W is now headed this way. Worthwhile to keep an eye open and watch this system.

There is good news for Kamanga marine protected area. I learned that the vicious, greedy, parasitic coal power plant supporting new species of shark including the vix cattus partis, environment pessum ire partis and solum moenia partis are now a bit 'exposed' and feel 'uncomfortable'. This...

Happy birthday:beerchug: Can you document your shark training program so others can learn from this? I thought that maybe you can teach the shark how to smell coal dust/emmissions - y'know - associate coal with blood.