Please post your trip reports for Tubbataha 2010

[Karl_H]

Just returned back from a week on the Stella Maris with Expedition fleet and can give some good news in that I was generally pretty impressed with the boat (although I had quite low expectations!!!), the diving and the general set-up onboard!

The crew were excellent, accommodation was fine, not exactly 1st class but the cabin we had was more than what we had expected and sleeping wasn't a problem (other than the rough sea on the way out there). The food onboard was excellent - way, way better than I had possibly expected and much better than most dive resorts!

Diving was great for the first three days, the viz closed in a little on the final two but after being spoiled with great conditions for the first three we couldn't complain.

Highlights for me would be the Delson Wreck 'crack' and the Shark Airport Wall, both well worth diving a few times! The Delson Wreck site is unbelievable when a current is running, holding onto what ever you can and sitting in the current running up the slope while 20-30 grey reef sharks circle just over a metre above (and some were pretty big!) is something I wont forget! Not to mention the big marble rays that kept apearing there. Shark Airport wall was another on I won't forget, there's some really nice swim through type openings in the wall and big caves/caverns to check out too!

The Manta ray cleaning station near the washing machine/wall street would be worth a mention too, although the viz wasn't so good there was a quite a few mantas around during our dives there

After thinking about it for a while I decided to take along my twin tank manifold and brackets and dive twin tanks there using the boats cylinders with my valves, I'd definitely recommend going down that route or at least using a 15l tank as all the walls are deep, with plenty to see down at 40-50m and great viability down there at all times. The boat crew were also great with Nitrox fills making any mix up as required so diving a lower (24-26%) mix earlier and moving to a higher O2 mix during the day was no problem.

I'll post a better report in the coming days, but until then I just wanted to say Expedition Fleet were actually better than I had expected and the trip was great!

A few pics attached, not had chance to play with them on Photoshop yet but you get the general idea!

Karl

The Marble Ray shot is the scariest photo I've ever taken, my o-ring below out underwater but luckily I was using twins so could continue the dive with my primary regulator closed and using the secondary through the manifold to still get two tanks of air, unfortunately this meant using oral inflation for the BCD... Not good then your using 32% Nitrox and at 42m while sinking like a stone but not wanting to miss the photo - My computer wasn't too happy at the PO2 though!

 

[ozziworld]

Thanks for the report! Been checking-in on this thread everyday for last two weeks. Will be leaving for Tubbataha on the Oceanic Explorer in a few days and the anticipation is really building up. Looking forward to a great trip. Thanks for taking the time to write.

 

[kwhkg]

Great shots !!!

 

[fuggler]

Beautiful pictures!

 

[Rogersea]

Thanks for the pics, Just glad you werent on 36.

 

[expeditionfleet]

Out of 24 passengers, 7 has opted for full refund and airfares and 17 has opted to rebooked.

We thank the 17 divers for their confidence in our liveaboards

 

[gee13]

Thanks for the report, lucky to still be here Karl, if you really pushed your MOD for a photo. Ive always been told a photo's not worth risking for. How is the coral life up there? Some of the photos are very nice, but I see quite a bit of bleaching. What about the fish varieties? How does Tubbataha rate amongst other PI diving/ and or other top destinations?

 

[Karl_H]

Thanks for the report, lucky to still be here Karl, if you really pushed your MOD for a photo. Ive always been told a photo's not worth risking for. How is the coral life up there? Some of the photos are very nice, but I see quite a bit of bleaching. What about the fish varieties? How does Tubbataha rate amongst other PI diving/ and or other top destinations?

Thanks - I was only just over 1.6 PO2 and not really doing much physical activity so I wasn't too concerned about the current depth - it was more how deep I'd end up! I'd decided once I hit 1.7 I was scrapping the photos

The corals are suffering from a combination of bad typhoon damage and bleaching in the shallows, some of the 'typhoon damage' still looks suspiciously crater shaped and only seems to have effected a relatively small areas, although luckily these areas look like the damage was done some time ago!

Some sites have the most amazing continuous corals I've seen, with relatively little bleaching or damage (to be honest the damage looks like poor buoyancy diver landing sites), while others have a lot more damage. The damaged corals seems to be much better location for spotting wildlife, particularly where there sandy bottom areas more common - for the record I have never seen another location with even lose to the amount of garden eels you seem to find in Tubatahha!

For wall diving I'd say it's hard to beat Tubattaha, it's the only place I've been to that makes Verde Island look rather average! Some of the walls there are full or small swim through and caverns (particularly around shark airport) while there always seems to be a lot of larger sharks around, even when there is no current there's usually plenty or grey and white tip reefs sharks around if you go a little deeper.

As for the corals some places are up there with the best corals in the PI. while others are much more average run-of-the-mill coral areas. The big attraction in Tubattaha for me was definitely the walls, I'll certainly be going back to dive them again, although I'm not sure when! The corals are good, but probably not worth making the trip just to see them, but add in the amazing walls and the larger pelagics and I think anyone would find it hard to not enjoy the diving there!

 

[h3sean]

I think expeditionfleet does their job well enough.
Yes they're not a 5-star perfect service but their DM's are very professional, their crew are really hospitable and friendly. It's just that they had a problem with one of their ships and the management had a hard time in making a choice, that's all. And as the previous post said, there are 17 who rebooked. I think those people chose to look at the positive side of expedition fleet's services than the negative side.

 

[demonic_death]

Guys,

I just came back from Tubbataha this weekend and what I saw literally broke my heart. A brief background, I was there last April 2006 and sad to say a lot has changed.

First off, although the corals were still nice it was 10x nicer before. Bleaching was evident, and the corals were not half as colorful as it once was. By the way the viz was very clear when I went there.

Turtle city by the ranger station is now a turtle ghost town. The sea turtles were fished by illegal chinese fishermen ( a lot of them were caught but the 1000+ turtles onboard were already dead ) and to see one during a dive is rare now. Way back before there were dozens of turtles at each dive.

The mantas weren't there anymore ( we even have nicknames for the resident mantas there we call them Putol( because he has a very short tail ), Unat ( because he has a long straight tail ) and Kulot ( because he has a curly tail ) ). I only saw Unat but his other 2 friends weren't there any longer.

The sharks that Karl has seen didn't quite compare to the number of sharks back then. There were twice as many sharks before. I did see the circling sharks but at each dive site before there were sharks everywhere you looked. Now, not so much.

I used to call Tubbataha my siren of the south. When I first went there it held my heart and never let go. I forgot to check all my gauges since I was totally bewitched by its beauty. Now sad to say, it beauty is disappearing.

The corals I think are dying due to global warming. They weren't shattered so I am sure there are no dynamite fishing in the area. Also during my dives I came across a few fishing nets ( broken and on the corals ). Illegal fishing is still a huge problem there.

The rangers do not have the equipment necessary to go after the big trawlers that come after diving season is over. Due to the political corruption ( which I will not mention here ) the rangers are almost helpless in the face of these fishermen.

And if you say we impound the boats and jail the illegals... yes it is being done, but if you do not catch the big financier of these fishermen ( who are just small fry and are merely workers ) it will be hard to preserve the reefs.