jefffalcone
Contributor
I just got back from a liveaboard to Tubbataha. I was diving aboard the Stella Maris operated by the Expedition Fleet.
All in all, I was pretty disappointed. The boat manager who chose all the dive sites and lead the dives had very little knowledge of the area. He had a total of about 2 weeks diving experience on Tubbataha, and he quite obviously didn't know how to dive the reef. He frequently would miss the site that he was trying to bring us to. He was dead wrong about the currents on every single dive. At one point he chose a site that the second mate (a local familiar with the reef) said he had never heard of anyone diving and he thought it would be good. Guess what? The second mate was right.
In defense of the boat manager, he was trying his best, he just suffered from lack of knowlege. The company should be responsible for training him better.
The conditions were terrible. The seas were very rough, and visibility was comparable to New England (50 feet max). The liveaboard company advertises that they usually experience 200 feet of visibility, but I found out that poor vis is typical for this time of year. Vis doesn't clear up for a couple of weeks still. I could tell that the diving would be excellent if conditions were right, but the vis sucked, the currents were dead (so the big stuff wasn't around) and the dive master didn't know what he was doing. The coral was spectacular. More healthy gorgonians than I've ever seen. Several varieties of coral that I'd never seen. Nice diving, just not as nice as I expected.
If you're planning a trip to Tubbataha, I suggest trying later in the season and NOT using the Expedition fleet.
All in all, I was pretty disappointed. The boat manager who chose all the dive sites and lead the dives had very little knowledge of the area. He had a total of about 2 weeks diving experience on Tubbataha, and he quite obviously didn't know how to dive the reef. He frequently would miss the site that he was trying to bring us to. He was dead wrong about the currents on every single dive. At one point he chose a site that the second mate (a local familiar with the reef) said he had never heard of anyone diving and he thought it would be good. Guess what? The second mate was right.
In defense of the boat manager, he was trying his best, he just suffered from lack of knowlege. The company should be responsible for training him better.
The conditions were terrible. The seas were very rough, and visibility was comparable to New England (50 feet max). The liveaboard company advertises that they usually experience 200 feet of visibility, but I found out that poor vis is typical for this time of year. Vis doesn't clear up for a couple of weeks still. I could tell that the diving would be excellent if conditions were right, but the vis sucked, the currents were dead (so the big stuff wasn't around) and the dive master didn't know what he was doing. The coral was spectacular. More healthy gorgonians than I've ever seen. Several varieties of coral that I'd never seen. Nice diving, just not as nice as I expected.
If you're planning a trip to Tubbataha, I suggest trying later in the season and NOT using the Expedition fleet.