Dive #72 : Gilutongan Marine Resort, off Mactan, Cebu, Philippines

Allright now this one was definately all worth it. A good wall at around 5-25 meters, with shitloads of hard and soft corals plus an amazing variety of coral life including a school of giant spadefish, groupers, and a lot of smaller, typical stuff such as parrotfish, morish idols, at least twenty triggerfish chasing each others as maniacs as they are, variety of wrasses and flutemouths, trumpetfish etc, a few shrimps and pipefish but no nudey branches this time.

Even though the site was great, a few dynamite blasts shocked us underwater. It really feels like someone throws the explosives right next to you, such strong is the shockwave underwater. Everyone were staring at each other in disbelief, however relieved that no-ones tank had exploded and that wach one of us were fine. So we continue the dive only to experience the second and the third blast in the moments to come.

This is exaclty the kind of bullshit that greedy attitudes bring up in people. You can easily make the buck by killing all the fish around with a few explosives, then pick the fish and sell it to the market, restaurants, or even worse the chinese morons who buy the fish after not much is left in their own country. Then you leave the corals destroyed and you must hunt the fish further and further away. Also the dive tourism which brings way more money to the local economy than fishing, will diminish. Of course, the fishermen dont get much benefit from divers, but they really must sort themselves out somehow. What the @#@# is the point to first to pay a speacial entrance fee to eneter a marine reservoir and still discover people dynamite fishing in the area. F U all greedy money blinded wankers who are just too lame, dumb or both to understand anything further than short term income.

It was still unclear how far the dynamites were detonated. In the water the shockwave is obvious, however people on the deck of our boat had not heard anything.

Weights 10kg ( because long thick 5mm wetsuit plus gloves), vis 25m, depth 25m, divetime 47min great one.

Dive #71 : Tambuli reef, Mactan Island, Cebu, Philippines

Took off with a few people from work, including my current boss who is an enthusiastic diver. After playing around with waterjets (surpsinigly quite fun!) time to get serious and put the divegear on. We rented quite a large boat, and started patrolling the reefs. Water turquise and crystal clear as the standard in the Philippines seems to be.

Fisr stop was Tambuli reef, where we faced some strong currents and a sea snake was immediately waiting for us. Another interesting thing here was the sunken airplane, a wreck to fool around with was quite unique. However it was a turnoff to realize that it was deliberatly put there for the divers sake. Thats really lame! Not that it's that new of an idea, in the gulf of Mexico they sunk a whole 250 meter long (888 feet) aircraft carrier the USS Oriskany just for the divers. Read more.

So, this was just a small plane, actually just a reminder of the stuff waiting at the Coron Bay, and those wrecks are the realk thing from WW2.

So yeah lets face it, it was a boring dive and diving with your boss is never a great idea since it definately takes some elements off the thing. Also visibilitywise, even Philippines do have good visibility, after Cozumel Mexico, nothing really is the same!

Wetsuit 5mm long, weights 8kg, divetime 35min, vis 20m

EFR, Savedra divers, Moalboal

Emergency First Response course done at Savedra Divers by an Englishman called Abraham Borg. An OK certification course focusing on emergency situations, first response, CPR and banding.

Eli suomeks, hyva setti, alussa onnettomuustilanteen analysointi ja lisavaaroilta valttyminen, tajuttoman potilaan kasittely, hengittamattoman potilaan kasittely, tukehtuneen potilaan kasittely ja haavojen sitominen. Kaytannon harjotuksia paljon, tekohengitysta, rintakehan pumppaamista (2 hengitysta, 30 pumppausta, breath check) ja haavojen sitomista.

Olihan toi instructori ehka parhaimmat paivansa jo nahny mutta ihan kokenu heppu silti ja piti ihan siedettavan kurssin. Ei tosta merijalkavaen kouluttajaa enaa tulis.

Anyway, now I am ready for the rescue diver course. Maybe next weekend!

Dive 70 : Tongo Point, Molaboal, Philippines

Well after the sardines this one just couldnt keep itself interesting, but it was still worth going I suppose. A nice dropoff wall that we followed in around 25 meters depth for a good half an hour, after which spent another 20 minutes exploring shallow corals. The wall was nice and the corals were good, but there was nothing spectacular to be discovered. Not even the mandarinfish showed up, those were likely to be seen here, but none was found. Too bad, its a splendid creature.

We did see a gigantic frogfish though, and seems that I am starting to find stuff myself more and more, and not just looking at things that are pointed out to me. A couple of pipefish for example, a hard to find creatures, as well as a well carmoflaged scorpionfish. Nice stuff.

Also signed up for the Emergency First Response course, supposed to do some studying now and attending the course tomorrow!

Divetime 55min, max depth 25 m, long 3 mm suite, weight 7 kg

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

Dive 68 : Sanctuary, Balicasag (Panglao, Bohol) Philippines

Here we go again, this time without the israeli goof, it was all not just pleasant but superb diving. The 30 meter deep coral wall hosted some of the biggest sea gorgonians I have EVER seen (3 meters ++) and a lot, I mean a LOT, of other stuff. Couple of frogfishes are worth mentioning, otherwise impossible to point out specific species. But in a true Filipino manner, the corals were just packed with small fish including at least all kind of angelfish, turtle queens, parrotfish, puffers, anenome "nemo" fish, cigar wrasses, lionfish, flutemouth/pipefish, groupers, jacks, snappers and large schools of mackarel. No whalesharks, but the whole panorama is simply breath-taking!

One of the best wall dives ever, even though the Belizes Half Moon Atoll is not easily beaten. The visbility here, this time at least, is not AS good as in Cozumel or Belize, where even at 25 meters depth everything was crystal clear up to 50 meters. Here visib ility maybe up to 30m, still good.

Divesuit 1 mm "pyjama" long, 6kg weight, max depth 18m, divetime 55min, visibility 25m

Dive 67 : Black Forest, Balicasag, (Panglao,Bohol) Philippines

Dive 67 : Black Forest, Balicasag, (Panglao,Bohol) Philippines
GPS Coordinates Entry Point: N.09°30.890-E.123°41.336
GPS Coordinates Exit Point: N.09°30.779-E.123°41.182

A lousy start, when a dummy israeli divebuddy negleted everything the divemaster had told him. When others went down, he stayed up. When others inspected the wall, he was taken by current and had to be rescued from the blue. When others stayed still, he went down. Only after being able to join another group (still from the same boat of course) started to enjoy the dive. First strong current, but then a nice corally aquarium full of life, towards the Cathedral called divesite.

An aquarium with all kind of Anthias, Rockcods Groupers (serraidae family), Scorpion fishes (scorpaenidae family), Squirrel fishes (holocentridae family), Parrotfish (scaridae family), Wrasse (labridae family), Damsel fishes (pomacentridae family) and Anemone fishes (amphiprioninae subfamily). Two turtles, couple of medusas, a couple of barracudas OR spikemouths.

End part of the dive brings the memories from the Mualbual dives in 2006, such rich was the marine life. And again the nudey branches (didnt see them in Mexico, Belize, or Costa Brava) are back in the pictre, as well as the sea cucumbers, spaghetti like seaworms, and zillions of small aquarium fish (purple queens).

Divesuit 1 mm "pyjama" long, 6kg weight, max depth 25m, divetime 55min, visibility 25m

Nice to be back in the Philippines!