Apo Island and Malapascua Island Dive Trip - March 2009
I got back from my last dive trip to Apo Island and Malapascua Island last month and finally am writing up a rather bare report compared to Chem's. I am just recording some of the highlights. I saw a lot of critters and unfortunately I wasn't that diligent in marking them down on my dives. Lots of photos though.
Apo Island - March 9 - 12.
1. Chapel - blue ribbon eel and yellow barred jaw fish.
2. Chapel - night dive - barredfin moray.
3. Coconut - drift dive on the north and east side. Those funny little green and yellow sea cucumbers and a green sea turtle.
4. Rock East -West fimbriated moray.
5. Largahan - ornate ghost pipefish black, fimbriated moray and sea moths.
6. Cogon - school of jacks, rock mover wrasse, titan and red tooth trigger fishes.
7. Coconut - the usual variety pack as we drifted along.
8. Sanctuary - lots of anemone fish, circular spadefish and bullethead parrot fish.
9. Chapel - night dive barredfin moray again and porcupine fish.
10. Cogon - jack school, white eyed moray and garden eels.
11. Largahan - sea moths, ornate ghost pipefish (better shots this time) and a black frog fish.
12. Barhgon - starry moray and Philanopsis pilsbryi nudibranch (new for me).
I stayed at Liberty Lodge and dived with Paul's diving on Apo Island for 5 days - 12 dives. The weather was very nice and settled. I never notice the heat on this trip unless I was in Cebu or Manila. I used Liberty's transfer from the airport on arrival and departure. Liberty's took me to the passenger only ferry from Negros to Cebu Island thus I boarded a nice aircon bus on the Cebu side. It was still a long trip in entirety - about 5.5 hours from Apo to Cebu City.
Malapascua Island - March 18 - 23.
1. Lapus Lapus - sandy bottom w/ lots of little stuff - Nice muck dive with a snake eel and the usual mantis shrimps and pipe fish.
2. Tapalon Wreck - ornate ghost pipe fish white/red variety.
3. Lighthouse - Mandarin fish, sea horses and a small octopus.
4. Monad Shoal - two devil rays and three threshers.
5. Nunez - wall dive - eels and lionfish.
6. Calangaman - wall dive - juvenile ribbon eel at surface interval.
7. Lighthouse - (night dive) - mandarin fish going at it again and again blue ringed octopus.
8. Monad Shoal - Thresher sharks.
9. Batong Batus - a new dive on a coral rock mound a little too deep for a long air dive.
10. Bantigi - Snake eel getting walked on by a cleaning shrimp and sea moths.
11. Bantigi (night dive) - fantastic, new nudibranchs (to me) and little crabs on sea pens.
12. Gato Island - white tip reef sharks and nice nudibranchs.
13. Gato Island -
14. Kimud - blue water dive for hammerheads nothing much but some barracuda and pelagic invertebrates.
15. Monad Shoal - perfect we were on the Shoal at about 8:30am after all the other boats had left just us and the threshers - 3.
16. Batong Batus - pigmy cuttle fish.
17. Bantigi - great macro snake eel with cleaner shrimp, zebra crab on an urchin.
18. Lighthouse - mandarin fish mating again those little guys just donÃÕ stop lots of sea horses. (5 dive in one day - whew).
19. Chocolate Island - really nice photogenic cuttle fish and various nudibranchs.
20. Dakit Dakit - sandy bottom with scattered coral rock mounds just poking around for stuff - good relaxing last dive.
Thresher Shark Divers now have a restaurant on top of the scuba shop. They have a small menu that changes daily so they can concentrate on faster service for larger groups. It is nice to have the bar on top as well to catch whatever breeze might be present. TSD did arrange a roast pig one night for dinner with fixings - hmmm, good. Even got to meet the guest of honor the night before and the night of he looked mostly the same except a little more tanned. The elevated location of the bar helps keep off mosquitoes as I got bitten more in Cebu City than I did on Malapascua. The Italians rebuilt their restaurant (new location) and the food is very good although a little more expensive it makes for a nice treat. There were a lot of divers at TSD but they staggered dive trips nicely to avoid crowding the shop with too many divers. I think they had 4-5 boat running most of the time I was there (it was unusually busy that week). Average dive was usually an hour long.
I posted most of my better photos of the trip on my flickr site.
Cheers, Jason.
I got back from my last dive trip to Apo Island and Malapascua Island last month and finally am writing up a rather bare report compared to Chem's. I am just recording some of the highlights. I saw a lot of critters and unfortunately I wasn't that diligent in marking them down on my dives. Lots of photos though.
Apo Island - March 9 - 12.
1. Chapel - blue ribbon eel and yellow barred jaw fish.
2. Chapel - night dive - barredfin moray.
3. Coconut - drift dive on the north and east side. Those funny little green and yellow sea cucumbers and a green sea turtle.
4. Rock East -West fimbriated moray.
5. Largahan - ornate ghost pipefish black, fimbriated moray and sea moths.
6. Cogon - school of jacks, rock mover wrasse, titan and red tooth trigger fishes.
7. Coconut - the usual variety pack as we drifted along.
8. Sanctuary - lots of anemone fish, circular spadefish and bullethead parrot fish.
9. Chapel - night dive barredfin moray again and porcupine fish.
10. Cogon - jack school, white eyed moray and garden eels.
11. Largahan - sea moths, ornate ghost pipefish (better shots this time) and a black frog fish.
12. Barhgon - starry moray and Philanopsis pilsbryi nudibranch (new for me).
I stayed at Liberty Lodge and dived with Paul's diving on Apo Island for 5 days - 12 dives. The weather was very nice and settled. I never notice the heat on this trip unless I was in Cebu or Manila. I used Liberty's transfer from the airport on arrival and departure. Liberty's took me to the passenger only ferry from Negros to Cebu Island thus I boarded a nice aircon bus on the Cebu side. It was still a long trip in entirety - about 5.5 hours from Apo to Cebu City.
Malapascua Island - March 18 - 23.
1. Lapus Lapus - sandy bottom w/ lots of little stuff - Nice muck dive with a snake eel and the usual mantis shrimps and pipe fish.
2. Tapalon Wreck - ornate ghost pipe fish white/red variety.
3. Lighthouse - Mandarin fish, sea horses and a small octopus.
4. Monad Shoal - two devil rays and three threshers.
5. Nunez - wall dive - eels and lionfish.
6. Calangaman - wall dive - juvenile ribbon eel at surface interval.
7. Lighthouse - (night dive) - mandarin fish going at it again and again blue ringed octopus.
8. Monad Shoal - Thresher sharks.
9. Batong Batus - a new dive on a coral rock mound a little too deep for a long air dive.
10. Bantigi - Snake eel getting walked on by a cleaning shrimp and sea moths.
11. Bantigi (night dive) - fantastic, new nudibranchs (to me) and little crabs on sea pens.
12. Gato Island - white tip reef sharks and nice nudibranchs.
13. Gato Island -
14. Kimud - blue water dive for hammerheads nothing much but some barracuda and pelagic invertebrates.
15. Monad Shoal - perfect we were on the Shoal at about 8:30am after all the other boats had left just us and the threshers - 3.
16. Batong Batus - pigmy cuttle fish.
17. Bantigi - great macro snake eel with cleaner shrimp, zebra crab on an urchin.
18. Lighthouse - mandarin fish mating again those little guys just donÃÕ stop lots of sea horses. (5 dive in one day - whew).
19. Chocolate Island - really nice photogenic cuttle fish and various nudibranchs.
20. Dakit Dakit - sandy bottom with scattered coral rock mounds just poking around for stuff - good relaxing last dive.
Thresher Shark Divers now have a restaurant on top of the scuba shop. They have a small menu that changes daily so they can concentrate on faster service for larger groups. It is nice to have the bar on top as well to catch whatever breeze might be present. TSD did arrange a roast pig one night for dinner with fixings - hmmm, good. Even got to meet the guest of honor the night before and the night of he looked mostly the same except a little more tanned. The elevated location of the bar helps keep off mosquitoes as I got bitten more in Cebu City than I did on Malapascua. The Italians rebuilt their restaurant (new location) and the food is very good although a little more expensive it makes for a nice treat. There were a lot of divers at TSD but they staggered dive trips nicely to avoid crowding the shop with too many divers. I think they had 4-5 boat running most of the time I was there (it was unusually busy that week). Average dive was usually an hour long.
I posted most of my better photos of the trip on my flickr site.
Cheers, Jason.
