35 dives in the Philippines

[rcolman]

We just got back from 35 dives, almost 3 weeks in the Ph. diving in Anilao, Puerto Galera, Apo Island, Sequijor, Alona Beach, and southern Leyte.

I will be posting a detailed dive report and article soon. Here is a preview:

* diving was good, but not great.

* best all around diving is in southern Leyte

* during March 9-31, vis. was generally poor at 10-15 meters, with some rough conditions now and again.

* macro is great, but THERE ARE NO FISH ... it appears that the dive areas that I visited have suffered from massive overfishing ... nothing but a few small reef fish here are there ... sightings of anything larger were very, very rare

* the philippine people are very friendly and helpful, without exception.

* it is VERY tiring, time consuming and expensive to travel WITHIN the Philippines, especially if you have a lot of baggage with photo gear, dive gear, etc. Think twice about covering a lot of different dive areas in a single trip. don't think I would do it again.

More to come ...

Rick Colman
Laguna Hills, CA

 

[Narcd_dvr]

Glad to hear you had a great time, but man, that's a lotta area to cover in a short period of time Did you ever get to go on safari? Looking forward to your diving pics.

 

[dlndavid]

We did 35 dives in two weeks, had no problem getting around and thought the diving was great. We were there about the same time of the year, March, we had great viz and saw plenty of fish, sorry your luck wasn't so good. We dived PG, Apo, Verde, the washing machine and Dumaguete.

 

[rcolman]

Yes, went on the safari offered by SeaQuest. The SeaQuest operation was good, with caveats.

The boat was kind of dirty and rough, with an interior cabin for luggage and some incidental seating. Mostly, you had to spend your time somewhere on deck, which became problematical on 4-6 hour crossings in rougher seas. Bigger bancas aren't great when the ocean swell comes up, and it did seem to come up every afternoon.

Accomodations were good, excepting apo island which was kind of primitive (no running water, etc.). Coco Grove on Sequijor was excellent. Oasis in Alona Beach seemed overpriced for the scale of the accomodations.

 

[rcolman]

I don't know where you would have gone to see plenty of fish ... the only plentiful fish that I saw were in the town fish markets???

90 million people are eating fish every day, and the denuded reefs show the effects ...

 

[manhattandiver]

Glad to hear that you had a good time. I agree that Southern Leyte has some of the best overall diving in the country. I also agree that getting around within the Philippines can be a real hastle, but arranging private transport, traveling overland when possible and staying within a smaller area can make a huge difference. (Dealing with local flights, ferries and busses, on the other hand, can be a real nightmare.) You're right that overfishing really limits the numbers of large and medium sized fish you see on most dives. However, for divers who are looking for macro life, great reefs and/or wrecks, don't want to be stuck on a liveaboard and want a great value, the Philippines is still tops in my book.

 

[rcolman]

I actually could have skipped the first two weeks, and just done Southern Leyte. I did get to dive with whale sharks in Southern Leyte, so that was really the highlight of the trip for me.

My mistake was in thinking that I would experience different kinds of diving in different parts of the country. This did not really happen. ** In the areas that I visited ** the diving was basically similar. Sure, the corals were a bit better in Apo Island, and the macro was maybe a little more varied in Anilao. but, basically it was all the same in terms of marine life.

I was a little discouraged by that aspect in that I expected more variety. If you are not primarily interested in macro size marine life, then the Philippines is probably not for you UNLESS price is supremely important. Diving in the Ph., however, is very cost-effective.

 

[Jason Ooi]

Sound great!!!
Glad to hear that you had a good time in Philippines...did you guy take any photo?

 

[Ben_ca]

vis. was generally poor at 10-15 meters

:shakehead

 

[manhattandiver]

You can get a good variety of diving doing land-based diving in the Philippines, it just takes a bit of jumping around. Coron has some of the best wreck diving in the Pacific (after Truk and Bikini), Anilao and Puerto Galera have great macro life, Malapascua has threasher sharks and mantas, and Southern Leyte has whale sharks, nice reefs, etc. Dealing with public transport and trying to fit all of it into one trip can be overwhelming, but the variety is there... just not the large/medium sized fish.