Dive 69 : Sardines of Pescador (Moalboal, Pfilippines)

Back in Moalboal after four years. Pescador island had not changed, it still had its personal look, recognizable from the mainland. Last time I was here with Jenni, who did her open water course here. They were good times!

Anyway, this time Pescador island really had a surprise for us. I dived with Savedra divers, headed here on friday night from Cebu and started diving first thing in the morning. It was not the clearest of days, but the visibility is still expected to be ok. As it turned out, there were no problames with visibility, even though after Cozumel I am so spoiled that anything below 30 meters seem bad visibility. Cozumel, clearer than anywhere!

But Cozumel didnt have the sardines. A few million of them. As soon as we descended and fought some strong currents, we were enfronted with a gigantic uber large school of sardines. I had never seen anything like this, it was truly from Discovery channel directly. And where there are sardines, there are the predators. A treasher shark and a white tip shark was observed during this one. However, they did not beat the thrill of the sardines, the sea was literally black from them. At around 25 meters depth looking up, you could not see the sunlight because of this cloud of sardines so thick and dense. Its one of those moments to remember for years to come! The sardines were swimming around for the whole 40 minutes we spent underwater, u just could not get enough from watching them. Stunning, this is why I dive, this is why I live!


School of sardines. Image by Jon Bertsch.

Other stuff included golden moray eel and a scorpionfish, some groupers etc. Divetime 40min, max depth 25m, visibility 20m, weights 6 kg + 1 kg added later, long 3mm suit