gerdear:
I will be visiting the Philippines this May for three weeks or so. I was wondering what are some of the better places in the Philippines to get a glimpse of larger marine life (mantas, sharks, whale sharks). Thanks
In the Visayas, the best place to big stuff in the period you mentioned is probably in Sogod Bay, Southern Leyte (about 5 hours by boat from Cebu City and an additional 2/3 hours busride). Gunther of
www.leyte-divers.com has set up shop in Padre Burgos at the end of the bay (it famous for WW II when the US Fleet destroyed the Japanese fleet passing by the Bay without taking a peek into it - too deep though to dive for the wrecks they say). Don't trust his rental regulators, they are a bit leaky (last year).
April / May is, according to Gunther but see his website for more details, the best place to see whalesharks and mantas. He doesn't guarantee them, but in that period, the chances are as good as they get. I saw one 5m one last year - amazing.
Sharks are not very prevalent in the Visayas, I saw some big reef whitetips at Pescador Island, Moalboal (Cebu Island) and of course the treshers at Monal Shoal off Malapasqua (north of Cebu Island, small paradise-like island with no great diving except for this Monal Shoal place, other places are long sail away and not worth the effort although Gato Island was nice). Mantas and hammerheads are seen around Malapasqua as well but usually in December / January (ie now).
You often read about the hammerheads of Cabilao Island of Bohol, Visayas. Since El Nino, they are missing. Some say they were caught by Taiwanese fishing boat. Anyway - all local dive folks agree they ain't there anymore, so don;t bother with cabilao if that is what your looking for (it is a great macro spot, though).
All in all the Visayas are not the best place for encounters with big stuff, but you do get to see a few sharks, throw in some turtles, lots of cool small stuf (nudibranches, mantis shrimps, pygmy seahorse, mandarin fish, frogfish, zillions of devil scorpiofishes) and considering that it is really cheap (pay no more then USD 15 per dive if you dive with own equipment, in Moalboal, USD 35 for three dives is perfectly negiotiable), I think it is quite brilliant. For me, the big fun was travelling to all the different spots (was there for three weeks as well), meeting different people all the time, and dive as much as possible. I had a blast (but that may also be partly due to this great Japanese girl I met and....oh well what do you care).
I posted earlier on the Visayas in a reply to a query by frogfish - you may find that helpful for orientation around the Visayas area. Have fun!
regards,
Arjan
