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IconJen

Registered
Messages
10
Reaction score
8
Location
Sydney, Australia
# of dives
50 - 99
G'day mates! This is going to be my first dive report so I apologise in advance if there's too much or too little info. I will try to be brief, direct, and concise as possible.

Sarangani Bay, or SarBay as it is fondly called, is located in the southern-most part of the Philippines, in the island of Mindanao. It is part of the province of Sarangani and opens up to Celebes Sea on the Pacific Ocean.

General Santos City, one of the Philippines’ most important coastal cities and ports, is at the head of the bay, making it one of the busiest ports in the country. It is also dubbed as the “Tuna Capital of The Philippines” and the home town of the only eight-division boxing champion, Manny “Pacman” Pacquiao.

sarangani-bay-location-philippines.jpg


I am not able to give a score or proper rating for macro and wide angle photography as I only stayed for 2 days and only did a total of 4 dives. I was still able to get some decent photos though.

Unlike other dive shops in other parts of the country, diving in Sarangani Bay (or at least where I went diving and who I went diving with) isn't going to cost you an arm or a leg. I spent AUD230.00 for 4 dives, with overnight accommodation, full day meals for two, along with some beer and late-night food.

reefscape-sarangani-bay-maasim-philippines-8.jpg


On my first day of diving, visibility was great. We saw a green sea turtle but it was 5-8m in front and 10-12m below us and we were already at 25m and I didn't want to chase it. On my second day of diving, the other guys saw the resident Napoleon wrasse and a spotted eagle ray. Schools of tuna also occasionally swim by. As for macro, there wasn't much for me to shoot but I reckon this was mostly because my dive guides were not really spotters.

Nembrotha-kubaryana-sarangani-bay-maasim-philippines.jpg


All in all, it was fun, although the current was crazy. This part of the country hasn't been explored much in terms of diving. The shop owner himself admitted that there's still a lot of dive sites that needs to be explored / discovered. Budget and accessibility-wise, I totally recommend it.

Location: Sarangani Bay, Province of Sarangani, Mindanao, Philippines
Date: Dec 29, 2019
Water temp: 27-28c / 80-82f
Visibility: 15-20m / 50-65' (on a bad day)
Budget: 2 out of 10 (10 being ridiculously expensive)
Macro: n/a
Wide: n/a
Photography equipment: Sony a6000, Sony 30mm f/3.5 macro, Sony 10-18mm f/4.0, Sony 16mm f/2.8 + fisheye lens converter, 2 x DS51 Ikelite strobes

To read more about it, visit my blog here: Dive report: Sarangani Bay
 
Thanks for posting, it is great to see a recent report. Sarangani Bay is one of my favorite places to dive in the Philippines.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/peregrine/

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