xrcjdx
Contributor
On Sunday, January 30, representatives of Sogod Bay Scuba Resort, Peter’s Dive Resort, The University of Southern Leyte, and in spirit Southern Leyte Divers, in a boat freely loaned by the Castle Resort, were able to make a thorough down and dirty of seven (7) named dive sites.
Some of these sites fared better than others. Everything, everywhere, suffered some level of pain. That said, here is my honest assessment of where Southern Leyte diving stands. I will put an asterisk alongside the dive sites that I was unable to reach, but the judgement I pass along on those are from people I trust. Disclaimer – I live here, am friendly with the resort owners and their families, and many of their workers, both dive and support. But these sites pretty much make up my back yard, and I am very familiar with what they “should” look like. That said, on no level does it serve to fluff or downplay the good, bad, and ugly here.
Dive conditions were by and large much better than expected. Visibility was as good as it gets, so we were able to see large parts of the reef system at a glance, without being on top of or right next to it. My dives were mostly in the range of 8-11 meters, give or take, with a couple of deeper descents to see something especially unusual or interesting close in. Of course, much time was spent in even shallower areas, and slow descents and unnecessarily long safety stops were deliberate.
In order of dive:
The Pinnacle (Jun’s): The current here was as strong as it gets (keep that in mind), so there was some heavy finning and breathing going on. At a 24 meter start depth we expected Jun’s to be untouched and it was completely as we had seen it any other time. The shallower wall was in remarkably, and surprisingly, good shape. We did not expect that. There was damage to the shallows behind the wall, with an accumulation of sand. It is not unusual, but not necessary, for some to finish this dive in that area. But as the wall extends to safety stop depth mostly to the south, at least in my experience, this site continues to be as desirable as before. Because of the south to north current some missed the Pinnacle and dove to the north. The shallows there, also frequently dived, suffered damage, but I did not see for myself. I have been there before, but usually under the same conditions – getting blown off the main site. On a related note, a close look at the southern shallows was if not impossible, impractical because of the current. But good news all in all for this area.
Napantao: This is a 2 dive site, but did not break this into north and south because both were surveyed at the same time. With more logged dives here than any other dive sites by far, I am very, very familiar with this area. I finned from south of the south wall drop to just about the end of the north wall (a 2-fer). Napantao South suffered and I was greatly disappointed with what I saw. There was debris from shore and broken staghorn in particular strewn about, and especially in the steeper gullies where it accumulated. Some of the rocks and boulders on the slopes looked like they were scrubbed clean. Some of the giant barrel sponges I had grown to know and love were gone. There is something about this site, above all others, that made it particularly vulnerable to this particular storm. As bad as this sounds, there is some encouraging news, and others who took this dive think I am being particularly harsh. It was reported that some of the shallower areas were in surprisingly good shape, and one view is that from the south point north the damage is superficial only and will soon recover. But the bulk of my dive, rightly or wrongly, was deeper, so I did not see this for myself. All this said, this site is in fact far from gone. There is a lot of color among the damaged areas. The fish are here as before. And many of the soft corals survived or are already growing back. This area will recover.
The great Napantao North Wall remains the Great Napantao North Wall! Though some coral is snapped, much of it is entirely intact, colorful as before, and loaded with fish. As before. The soft corals are intact. As I was getting low on air by this time, I took advantage of the opportunity to have a very good look in the shallows. The area along the top of the wall is as good as ever. It was really a pleasure to be up here. Some of the bowls that you may be familiar with on the top have accumulated sand. Closer, and shallower still near shore, it can be hit or miss. Still, this remains a destination for your snorkeling friends. The normal dive entry point for this dive is to the north of the wall, on a sandy slope. I did not get there, but those who did inspect it reported heavy damage. Not a surprise, but as no one comes here to dive that slope I consider it barely worth mentioning. I did not get to the far northern part of the north wall. But the report is that it suffered noticeable damage, including in “The Aquarium”. For those familiar with the entirety of this site, that completes the picture. Bottom line, Napantao North in particular remains among the finest shore-based dives the Philippines has to offer.
Limasawa Island:
Limasawa Island east side sits completely exposed to the Surigao Strait, and has a series of named dive sites. The two sites most commonly visited sit at the bottom of massive cliffs and steeps, making topside boat visits an attraction apart from the dives. As a result, these sites were expected to be heavily impacted.
Gunter’s (Zack’s) Wall*: Again, not so much. It is reported that Gunter’s remains a fantastic dive. As with the other sites, there is some damage in those remarkable shallows, but they remain far, far less impacted than feared.
Adrian’s Cove: Dropped in here about the usual place and was floored at the apparent lack of damage. A look to the north was equally impressive. The usual plan here involves a swim to the south, in the direction of Gunter’s Wall. (The swim from one site to the other covers a lot of distance and is never part of the dive plan.) When I was certain that the wall and slope areas here were virtually unimpacted, with the exception of a piece of shore debris here and there, I shallowed up to 2-3 meters to have a close look at the near shore line corals and the close in snorkeling areas, surfacing occasionally to pinpoint my location. There were occasional areas of sand or organic accumulation which correspond absolutely with the closest pass to the shore (as in next stop the beach) at the base of some of the steepest inclines. After covering most of what I considered the dive of Adrian’s Cove to be, I surfaced and got back on the boat. Where I did not dive was an area between Adrian’s and Gunter’s, a "24 minute" swim from the drop, to be precise. As it turns out, this area was severely damaged by a landslide, the damage extends a fair way to the south, and to the extent it ever was is no longer a point of diving interest except to those who would like to have a glance at the power of Mother Nature to give, or in this case, taketh away. Does it take away from my overall assessment of this dive? Not really.
Medicare:
The very large dive sites taken together as Medicare and separately as North and South occupy an extended area along the east facing the mostly sheltered coast at the southern tip of Leyte Island. These be turtle infested waters, and they still are.
Medicare North*: Still there, with the same pattern of land debris in places, and shallower areas suffering most noticeably. Crazy turtle action.
Medicare South: This site IMHO is a fantastic, full featured dive that is easy to access by boat but because of the frontage along private property and a cliff complex, virtually impossible to access by land unless you live here, and very hard to swim to from where shore access is possible. I finned along most of its length at a little deeper depth of 11-12 meters to have a good look up and down and liked what I saw. A dive along Medicare South remains as desirable as ever. Safety stop depth as always is a sandy area studded with features, and hence the turtles. Did not notice anything very unusual during a lingering safety stop on top at 4-5 meters. Some others took a more critical position. Still worth a leisurely look around.
Conclusions:
Southern Leyte is particularly blessed being in the center of the heart of the Coral Triangle, nutrient rich, and is no stranger to cleansing current. Much of the sand that undoubtedly covered a lot of the slopes and wall immediately after Rai (Odette locally) is already gone, and will continue to clear. The heavier depositions in the shallower, flatter or bowl-shaped terrain will likewise improve and recover. Jerome, the coral reef scientist from the University, seems certain that the reef system will fully recover from whatever damage the storm caused. I by and large expected to see much more serious damage than what I did in fact see. This is not to minimize the fact that there is disappointing damage in some places. But the entire system remains intact, the clouds of colorful fish are where they always were, the macro life appears intact, and the system could have suffered much more serious damage, but it did not. The dive sites are a little worse for the wear and tear, but the final score by any reckoning is dive sites +1.
I will follow this up soon with links to photos and videos of these dives, and an assessment of the remaining most heavily visited dive spots in Southern Leyte.
Some of these sites fared better than others. Everything, everywhere, suffered some level of pain. That said, here is my honest assessment of where Southern Leyte diving stands. I will put an asterisk alongside the dive sites that I was unable to reach, but the judgement I pass along on those are from people I trust. Disclaimer – I live here, am friendly with the resort owners and their families, and many of their workers, both dive and support. But these sites pretty much make up my back yard, and I am very familiar with what they “should” look like. That said, on no level does it serve to fluff or downplay the good, bad, and ugly here.
Dive conditions were by and large much better than expected. Visibility was as good as it gets, so we were able to see large parts of the reef system at a glance, without being on top of or right next to it. My dives were mostly in the range of 8-11 meters, give or take, with a couple of deeper descents to see something especially unusual or interesting close in. Of course, much time was spent in even shallower areas, and slow descents and unnecessarily long safety stops were deliberate.
In order of dive:
The Pinnacle (Jun’s): The current here was as strong as it gets (keep that in mind), so there was some heavy finning and breathing going on. At a 24 meter start depth we expected Jun’s to be untouched and it was completely as we had seen it any other time. The shallower wall was in remarkably, and surprisingly, good shape. We did not expect that. There was damage to the shallows behind the wall, with an accumulation of sand. It is not unusual, but not necessary, for some to finish this dive in that area. But as the wall extends to safety stop depth mostly to the south, at least in my experience, this site continues to be as desirable as before. Because of the south to north current some missed the Pinnacle and dove to the north. The shallows there, also frequently dived, suffered damage, but I did not see for myself. I have been there before, but usually under the same conditions – getting blown off the main site. On a related note, a close look at the southern shallows was if not impossible, impractical because of the current. But good news all in all for this area.
Napantao: This is a 2 dive site, but did not break this into north and south because both were surveyed at the same time. With more logged dives here than any other dive sites by far, I am very, very familiar with this area. I finned from south of the south wall drop to just about the end of the north wall (a 2-fer). Napantao South suffered and I was greatly disappointed with what I saw. There was debris from shore and broken staghorn in particular strewn about, and especially in the steeper gullies where it accumulated. Some of the rocks and boulders on the slopes looked like they were scrubbed clean. Some of the giant barrel sponges I had grown to know and love were gone. There is something about this site, above all others, that made it particularly vulnerable to this particular storm. As bad as this sounds, there is some encouraging news, and others who took this dive think I am being particularly harsh. It was reported that some of the shallower areas were in surprisingly good shape, and one view is that from the south point north the damage is superficial only and will soon recover. But the bulk of my dive, rightly or wrongly, was deeper, so I did not see this for myself. All this said, this site is in fact far from gone. There is a lot of color among the damaged areas. The fish are here as before. And many of the soft corals survived or are already growing back. This area will recover.
The great Napantao North Wall remains the Great Napantao North Wall! Though some coral is snapped, much of it is entirely intact, colorful as before, and loaded with fish. As before. The soft corals are intact. As I was getting low on air by this time, I took advantage of the opportunity to have a very good look in the shallows. The area along the top of the wall is as good as ever. It was really a pleasure to be up here. Some of the bowls that you may be familiar with on the top have accumulated sand. Closer, and shallower still near shore, it can be hit or miss. Still, this remains a destination for your snorkeling friends. The normal dive entry point for this dive is to the north of the wall, on a sandy slope. I did not get there, but those who did inspect it reported heavy damage. Not a surprise, but as no one comes here to dive that slope I consider it barely worth mentioning. I did not get to the far northern part of the north wall. But the report is that it suffered noticeable damage, including in “The Aquarium”. For those familiar with the entirety of this site, that completes the picture. Bottom line, Napantao North in particular remains among the finest shore-based dives the Philippines has to offer.
Limasawa Island:
Limasawa Island east side sits completely exposed to the Surigao Strait, and has a series of named dive sites. The two sites most commonly visited sit at the bottom of massive cliffs and steeps, making topside boat visits an attraction apart from the dives. As a result, these sites were expected to be heavily impacted.
Gunter’s (Zack’s) Wall*: Again, not so much. It is reported that Gunter’s remains a fantastic dive. As with the other sites, there is some damage in those remarkable shallows, but they remain far, far less impacted than feared.
Adrian’s Cove: Dropped in here about the usual place and was floored at the apparent lack of damage. A look to the north was equally impressive. The usual plan here involves a swim to the south, in the direction of Gunter’s Wall. (The swim from one site to the other covers a lot of distance and is never part of the dive plan.) When I was certain that the wall and slope areas here were virtually unimpacted, with the exception of a piece of shore debris here and there, I shallowed up to 2-3 meters to have a close look at the near shore line corals and the close in snorkeling areas, surfacing occasionally to pinpoint my location. There were occasional areas of sand or organic accumulation which correspond absolutely with the closest pass to the shore (as in next stop the beach) at the base of some of the steepest inclines. After covering most of what I considered the dive of Adrian’s Cove to be, I surfaced and got back on the boat. Where I did not dive was an area between Adrian’s and Gunter’s, a "24 minute" swim from the drop, to be precise. As it turns out, this area was severely damaged by a landslide, the damage extends a fair way to the south, and to the extent it ever was is no longer a point of diving interest except to those who would like to have a glance at the power of Mother Nature to give, or in this case, taketh away. Does it take away from my overall assessment of this dive? Not really.
Medicare:
The very large dive sites taken together as Medicare and separately as North and South occupy an extended area along the east facing the mostly sheltered coast at the southern tip of Leyte Island. These be turtle infested waters, and they still are.
Medicare North*: Still there, with the same pattern of land debris in places, and shallower areas suffering most noticeably. Crazy turtle action.
Medicare South: This site IMHO is a fantastic, full featured dive that is easy to access by boat but because of the frontage along private property and a cliff complex, virtually impossible to access by land unless you live here, and very hard to swim to from where shore access is possible. I finned along most of its length at a little deeper depth of 11-12 meters to have a good look up and down and liked what I saw. A dive along Medicare South remains as desirable as ever. Safety stop depth as always is a sandy area studded with features, and hence the turtles. Did not notice anything very unusual during a lingering safety stop on top at 4-5 meters. Some others took a more critical position. Still worth a leisurely look around.
Conclusions:
Southern Leyte is particularly blessed being in the center of the heart of the Coral Triangle, nutrient rich, and is no stranger to cleansing current. Much of the sand that undoubtedly covered a lot of the slopes and wall immediately after Rai (Odette locally) is already gone, and will continue to clear. The heavier depositions in the shallower, flatter or bowl-shaped terrain will likewise improve and recover. Jerome, the coral reef scientist from the University, seems certain that the reef system will fully recover from whatever damage the storm caused. I by and large expected to see much more serious damage than what I did in fact see. This is not to minimize the fact that there is disappointing damage in some places. But the entire system remains intact, the clouds of colorful fish are where they always were, the macro life appears intact, and the system could have suffered much more serious damage, but it did not. The dive sites are a little worse for the wear and tear, but the final score by any reckoning is dive sites +1.
I will follow this up soon with links to photos and videos of these dives, and an assessment of the remaining most heavily visited dive spots in Southern Leyte.
