Tubbataha Reef, A Divers Paradise!

    

October 10, 2009 by GenSan Chris  
Filed under Chris, Feature

Tubbataha Reef is the only World Heritage Site in the Philippines and is located in the Sulu Sea in between North Western Mindanao and Southern Palawan and it is a place which most Philippine Divers and indeed many Foreign Divers want to visit at least once in there life! If you get good weather then its a wonderful trip but with bad weather it can be a  horrific experience as many divers have found out! Luckily for me, the weather was perfect for my trip so it was money well spent!

Just 3 years ago myself and a group of divers from Gen San made the pilgrimage to Tubbataha but to get there from Gen San we had to first go to Cebu, spend the night there then fly on to Puerto Princessa in Palawan the next day where we were picked up at the airport by the Scuba World Crew who were the trip organizers! It was a short drive to our boat, the Oceanic Explorer which was a large ship with plenty room on board! We met the rest of the divers and crew and set off in the early evening for the overnight trip to the reef! Unfortunately for me there was a Formula 1 race that evening but they would not hold back the boat so I could watch it!

The Dive Boat!

We woke up early the next morning and were greeted by the sight of Bird Island which was one of the rare areas of the reef which was actually visible above water! Our first dive was to be on a site called Shark Airport and on entering the water we immediately knew why the name was choose for the site as there were several sharks on the white sandy sea bed just a few meters below us! There was all kinds of marine life here and with this being only dive number 1 of 20 we were really excited as to what we would be seeing on the future dives! After this first dive we had breakfast and having eaten realized that we were not going to loose any weight on the trip as the food was good and plentiful on each meal!

I shared a cabin with John Heitz, my good friend from Gen San, I had the lower bunk and John had the top! Now, the ship was a Japanese model and unfortunately had ceilings and doors which were Japanese size so it was not long before John got the nick name of bump head as he had several bumps and bruises on his head from his collisions with different parts of the ship as we all did! We were doing 4 day dives and 1 night dive  so the schedule was quite hard for some as they did not dive very often and could not do every dive on the trip which made life for me and John even better as we had a family of 4 along with us in our chase boat who did not do every dive so our dive guide took us on some spectacular dives which we would have missed if we had been diving with the family! On 2 such dives, we were in strong current around 100 feet down on a ledge at the side of the wall and along side us just a few meters off the wall was a line of sharks! These sharks reminded my of competition team cyclists because every few seconds, the leading shark would flip itself over and move to the end of the line! A few seconds later the next leader would do the same and so on! We watched this action for a few minutes on 2 occasions and I believe it was a way for the sharks to save energy by taking it in turns to face the current!

One of Many Turtles!

Our daily routine was to wake up by 6am, have a snack and drink and then the  first dive! Have breakfast then have a 2nd dive, have a snack then have a 3rd dive, have lunch then have a 4th dive, have a snack then have the Night Dive, then have supper, relax and sleep! This routine was for 4 days so it was quite tough to keep to! All the time, we were very lucky as the weather was really kind to us, the water was flat calm and the sun was out so the conditions underwater were exceptional! Even the night dives were good as there was a moon to add light along with the beams from our flash lights and there was much to see! Some of the night time creatures included Sharks, Turtles, Moray Eels, Octopus, Lobster, Crabs, Squid, Sting Rays, and much much more! The eyes of the Sharks glow on a night time just like those of a cat when they are caught in a beam of light so it was a bit creepy to see them!

John in a School of Jacks!

During our day dives what we saw was like you see on the National Geographic Channel on TV!  We saw Manta Rays, Eagle Rays, Giant Barracuda, Travelly’s, Spanish Maceral and Moray Eels! Napoleon Wrasse, Groupers, Sweetlips, Turtles! Schools of Jacks, Dog Tooth Tuna, Barracuda, Fusiliers and millions of reef fish of all shapes and colors! Man, we were in Scuba Heaven! On one single dive we saw more than 50 Green Turtles all relaxing on the reef, I had never seen anything like this before! Every dive we saw several different types of Sharks including White Tips, Black Tips, Grey Reef, Grey Nurse and even A Giant Hammerhead! There was just about every type of fish that you can think of in the area and even from the ship one day we saw a pod of Dolphins doing their thing and from the upper deck of the ship you could see many fish very clearly in the water below! Now, Tubbataha Reef is situated in deep water so gets a lot of seasonal weather which is very rough so the corals are good but not the greatest, this also can be said for the small reef fish as Nimo which is quite a rare sight on the reef where in most areas they are very common!

A School of Barracuda!

There is a detachment of Rangers stationed on a permanent structure on one area of the reef but they are far too few to patrol the whole area which covers now some 968 Sq Km and in bad weather they cannot move in their small craft so Poachers especially from China and Taiwan do get in and catch lots of Fish, Sharks and Turtles illegally but even when these people are captured they are usually released as a good will gesture to their home country!

The whole of our trip was fantastic and after the last night dive the drinks came out and we celebrated our success! Most of us had not taken any drink since we left port as we did not want to risk missing any dives because of drink! The trip itself was good in one way and not good in another because now I was spoiled and if I were to go back once more I could easily be disappointed after seeing so many wonderful things on such a great experience, maybe on a future trip I would not see so much! I took lots of Pictures but unfortunately towards the end of the diving my Digital Camera flooded and died when the casing sprang a leak, sorry for me! I will definitely recommend Tubbataha to any competent diver but the weather must be good! I know several divers who have horror stories when their chase boats sank and gear was lost, engines failed in bad weather, some only had 1 or 2 dives when they had to return to port because of bad weather etc!

View From the Boat Deck!

I have no complaints at all about the whole area and I really hope that the Government can do more to protect this important reef from poachers and keep it as a major breeding ground and habitat for many of the worlds Magnificent Marine Creature ensuring that they will be around in the future for others to see and enjoy!

One of the Scuba World Crew had been to Tubbataha on 8 occasions remarked that ours was the best trip he had been on! Were we lucky or what?

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About the Author:  Chris Dearne, aka "GenSan Chris" is a long term resident of the Philippines. Chris has been living in General Santos City since 1992! Chris owns a hotel in General Santos called Cambridge Farm Hotel, and also the Cambridge Dive Center, formerly Tuna City Scuba Center. Chris' interests include Scuba Diving, Instructing, and Formula 1 Racing.