Question Where to Dive in the Philippines That's NOT Focused on Muck Diving

[living4experiences]

I'm diving at El Galleon in Puerto Galera in March 2025 and would like to continue from there and dive somewhere else in the Philippines that is not a muck-centric location. I don't mind doing a muck dive on occasion, but I don't want to go somewhere that that's the focus of the diving. Any recommendations for locations and resorts? A/C is a requirement.

Thanks!

 

[passeparici]

If it says "muck diving" I don't go
And yes, for me, the word "muck" sounds very bad !

 

[Sure Squintsalot]

Thanks for all the input. My personal definition of muck diving is a dive with your head in the sand looking for critters.

I've poked around here and find very few trip reports about Tubbataha. However, Undercurrent has several postings from the 2023 and 2024 season, and it's not all glowing reviews, both for the liveaboard experience and the diving.

As I get older, I'm looking for epic diving to make the travel, time, and expense worth it. I rarely go to the same location twice because there's so much to explore and so little time left (for the dying reefs and my tolerance for getting across the globe).

That's my attitude as well.

One regular and one night "muck" dive is enough for me in a given week of diving. You have to have trained eyes to see a lot of that small, or well camouflaged stuff. Sure it can be rewarding to find macro animals but it's a lot more frustrating than anything else. Puerta Galera had a lot of reef-scale diving but nearby muck diving was a default when the the other areas were tapped out.

I too am looking for epic-level diving in SE Asia that isn't focused on small-stuff.

 

[Centrals]

I too am looking for epic-level diving in SE Asia that isn't focused on small-stuff.

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[Micko1974]

Lot's of reef diving in PG, with Verde Island being the highlight.
Subic/Coron for the wrecks
Bohol for the topography/reefs
Sogod Bay for quiteness.
Malapascua for the threshers.

There are many options.

 

[Germie]

Muck diving or small critters means the same: no colorfull coralreefs, but a bottom full of sand on a place where you normally won't dive, only biologists and photographers will come there. In my opinion it is just something commercial. But if you are not photographer and no biologist, muck diving and small critters were you cannot see any details with your own eye are not that interesting. Most divers want to see reefs and colorfull fish.
This said, I am also a photographer, means that 1-2 dives out of 30-40 it can be interesting, but I totally agree that not everybody will like it.

But in Anilao there are also reefs, like in puerto Galera, like in Moalboal etc. So you have to tell the divecenter you don't want to do a muckdive and you don't want to look for small critters. You want to see reefs. Remember, you pay for a dive, they have to organise a dive you want.

 

[Blackcrusader]

Here another diver that does not like muckdiving. Or only for 1-2 dives.
We go to Moalboal and Malapascua. I haven't been there, so cannot tell how it really was. We have booked from Moalboal Pescador Island, Oslob (yes, Whalesharks ) and Simulon Island. In Malapascua of course the sites with treshers, tigers and Gato Island for the reef sharks.
In Moalboal and Malapascua I also have booked a dive to see the mandarin fish. I have told the divecenters that I am a wide angle photographer, so I don't want to see sand. Hope they really do what they have promised.

I;ve done hundreds of dives in Moalboal and Pescadore Island. The island its a great dive site.

I got lots of video at Pescadore Island

 

[Blackcrusader]

Malapascua for the threshers.

There are many options.

Threshers are also at Moalboal late afternoons at the sardine run.

 

[Dan]

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[Dan]

I don't think you understand what muck diving really is... it's not (only) diving on mucky substrate, it's also searching for small(er) critters, which is absolutely what Anilao is. Anilao is interesting in part because you're searching for critters on white sand, coral, etc .Other than Sombrero, all the sites are much more about the small critrers, not big schools of fish and large reef scenes.

Like this one:

 

[Dan]

For me, that's not enjoyable for the whole dive. I did my first "muck" dive in Raja Ampat last year. It was at night. The entire dive was looking in the sand, and there was no option to swim over to the reef because there was no reef. I wouldn't have been able to find much if it hadn't been for the guide pointing things out. When you have a torch, a camera, and a magnifying glass, it's a balancing act. I mostly admired and not photographed the things that required the magnifying glass. Or sometimes I'd take the photo without the magnifying glass and hope for the best because my eyes couldn't see the critter but the camera could.

I guess you missed night diving in Crazy Zoo: