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DESTINATION OVERVIEW | Scuba diving on the coastal reefs around Negros Oriental can be a surprise. Once regarded as overfished and not a top dive destination, the area has had a complete renaissance. Small marine sanctuaries were established and local communities recognised the value of the protecting the bays south of Dumaguete City.
The diving in these small bays is not for everybody. Certainly, it could not be regarded as classically pretty, but there is the most fantastic range of critters with seahorses, ornate ghost pipefish, frogfish, mantis shrimp, snake eels, flamboyant cuttlefish, pegasus seamoths and so on. Even the incredible mimic octopus can be seen in Dauin bay.
Directly opposite Dauin is Apo Island. Measuring just 1 km x 1.5 km, Apo sits in deep, open water and is ringed with healthy corals. The island has a community run marine sanctuary with a protected zone on one side. The island is swept by strong currents at times so a lot of pelagic fish are attracted to the reefs as are turtles and seasnakes. The reef diving around Apo Island balances the macro diving along the coast opposite.
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Dumaguete and Apo Island scuba diving features
| Marine Life |
Mimic octopus | Ghost pipefish | zebra batfish | frogfish |
| Top dive site |
Dauin Bay |
| Seasons |
All year round |
| Visibility |
10 – 40 metres |
| Water temperature |
26 – 29º C |
| Deco chambers |
Manila and Cebu City |
| Getting there |
to Cebu City then 4-5 hours by ferry and road |
| Dive operators, liveaboards and accommodation |
The hotel/dive centre we stayed with has gone but Atlantis resorts are well regarded. |
PROS AND CONS | The Philippines are a long way from Europe or the USA but everything is cheap once you arrive so it's well worth the trip. Getting to Dumaguete takes some stamina: from Cebu airport to ferry terminal by taxi, ferry to island, drive to resort. There are also connecting flights from Manila. Accommodation is not high-end luxury but there are some good resorts and most dive centres are run by Europeans.
SCUBA DIVING | This part of the Visayas is slightly less typical of the tropics than nearby Alona Beach. The small bays that edge the coast of Negros have dark sand bottoms, rocks and patches of seagrass. The visibility is comparatively low but diving conditions are mostly easy-going. Offshore, Apo island has more prolific corals and visibility is excellent but the currents can be strong.
OPINION | When we visited Dumaguete a few years back we were delighted by the minimal numbers of people, deserted reefs and truly fantastic critter diving. We were so impressed with Dauin Bay we dived it every day and found something new on every dive. Apo was good, and makes a change to searching for small critters, but for reef diving we felt the Alona Beach area was better. And that made the two a perfect combination.
UPDATE | We recently returned to this region – very little has changed in the diving but there are a wider selection of shore-based hotels and the classy Philippine Siren sails this area for part of the year.
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