Newspaper article on Philippine coral reefs

[World Wide Diver]

I dived Verde 3 times in two weeks this April - as good as it's ever been in my 15 years

Photos please. Thank you.

 

[shugar]

hark! me heareth the gauntlet thrown!

Jag

 

[glenver]

sings

why... don't... we....

 

[Gen San Chris]

I love this site! What fun! Just now the conditions really suck in Sarangani Bay more like the center of the Septic Tank Triangle, nothing like the coral one!

Diving in such conditions, My open water Student will really enjoy himself tomoroW!

I love this site!

 

[bill22]

For others, please see PhilReefs on the Web - Home which gives very good info about Philippine coral reefs.

Verde Passage is very good, but does not have the recorded higher biodiversity of life for reefs fringing the Celebes Basin.

And, the Verde Passage marine life has been destroyed by blast fishing, tropical fish collection, overfishing and lack of protection (even though this area is closer to the capital of the Philippines than Mindanao). This area is recorded has having deteriorated badly over the past decade.

Verde Passage is also seldom visited by divers from this forum (or seems to be!) by those who like think that they can corroborate/report that this is the best place in the PI's (lack of info, photos, links, etc from them, etc - the norm BS reports).

Therefore, we - and others - can only believe what is written in reports about this area (as per weblink). We have dived many areas within the Celebes Basin and found these to be excellent. This is unlike some areas in the PI's (which we have dived) which are promoted by many as 'the best' but simply are not.

We compare these to the best dive sites in Micronesia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippine Islands.

It all depends upon your experience and expectations. This is the bottom line.

But, for me, I want to dive the best areas in the World. This is why I stick my neck out and travel to/dive remote areas that most Filipinos do not know; more foreign divers come to these places then they do.

This is because people are scared to dive many areas.

Gee... I seem to have missed all this (that's what I get for going to Okinawa on a dive trip and not paying much attention to SB for a few weeks )

I've not dived as many places as you obviously, but no less an authority than Roger Steene (I'm sure you must know who HE is) personally told me last year that he doesn't bother going on trips to anywhere anymore other than Anilao and PNG. HE told me that it was the best diving anywhere. Only PNG even compared. His attitude was that when you can find more species in Anilao than anywhere else... why bother? Of course he's already dived every where :cool2: .... I still have quite a list that I want to see for myself

Considering the number of books he's done and the fact that he likely has more dives in more places than all of us debating this at the moment put together... I think I'll take his word for it

 

[paolov]

yeah VERDE ROCKS !!!!

i hate washing machine dive site ! it rocks me !!!!! always...

 

[World Wide Diver]

Still waiting for some photos ...............

 

[chip104]

Still waiting for some photos ............... because anecdotal evidence is pivotal to my idiotic thinking and continued ignorance!

Here you go: Verde Island Pictures

For all the educated grown-ups, go ahead and read the scientific article I posted in my previous post and here's another scientific article to give a better understanding of the biodiversity in the coral triangle:
http://sci.odu.edu/biology/directory/carpenter_files/CarpenterSpringerEFB2005CenterofCenter.pdf

 

[clgsamson]

Salt and go easy on the butter, please, thank you!