Two weeks ago, we arrived back home after a week LoB trip to Tubbataha reef. My review of diving at Tubbataha is based on merely 15 dives at the South and North Atolls, with a check out dive at Jessie Beazley. The trip coincided with a waxing moon, so we never experienced much current. Perhaps it was due to the lack of currents, but I was struck by the lack of abundant fish life. Diving in the blue ocean or ascending to 3 to 6m along a heathy coral reef, the atolls lacks substantial fish biomass. We saw many white and blacktop sharks, some large (!!) dogtooth tuna, small groups of trevally, sweet lips, groupers, and numerous turtles. Unlike Raja Ampat, we did not experience great density or diversity of fish or a super healthy reef ecosystem. I am probably a bit overly critical, so take my comments with a grain(s) of salt.
Highlights include a juvenile whale shark on our checkout dive (within five minutes or so) at Jessie Beazley and a beautiful small manta at "Washing Machine", North Atoll. With only eight divers on the boat, we did not see many other bubbles or divers. Later that day, we saw a large whale shark at the same dive site. My personal favorite was a large bait ball of giant trevally at the end of our last dive. We spotted the bait ball at about 40 mins into the dive at about 19m. I admit, it was not the best practice, but I gently followed the school to 32 m, before I came to my senses and started my ascent. Not a smart idea at the end of a dive.
We saw mostly heathy hard corals, with soft corals. Interesting, we did not see many anemones, at least at our dive sites. Many dives, were slow and gentle with lovely shallow safety stops.
Would I return? That is a good question. Perhaps with strong currents, schooling fish and larger predators would be more common. Since Komodo Islands, Alor, Banda Sea or Raja Ampat are easily accessible, I am not sure that we would return to the Philippines. Other divers on our trip would probably disagree with my review. With healthy corals, whale sharks, a manta, and mellow gentle drift dives, many divers would be more than satisfied.