Diving Apo Island (Negros Oriental, Philippines)

I have never seen a coral bed that stretches as far as I can see into the blue – only in Apo.

This wonderful dive destination has been a marine sanctuary since the early 80s through the joint efforts of the residents and Dr Angel Alcala, then with the Siliman University Marine Laboratory and who was later to become Environment minister.

The 12-hectare island is home to 1,200 people and a barangay (village) of the municipality of Dauin. (Photo: www.aposhore.com) 

We accessed Apo through a 20-minute drive from Dumaguete city to the municipality of Dauin where we took 45-minute boat ride to the island.  For those who find this information important, there is mobile 3G coverage on the island. 

The Apo Island Beach Resort is nestled between two jutting rock formations, giving way to a patch sandy beach and a great shallow dive site (Balay), both spectacular on day and night dives.

There are 12 sites around the island and I visited Balay (house reef), Mamsa, Rock East, Coconut, Katipanan and Chapel.  The field of soft and hard corals were in Katipanan (imagine 30 years of protection), where we did a shallow one-hour dive looking for Mandarin fish.  We glimpsed its head and tail...not that lucky.

I had the pleasure of diving with Julian and Kelly who were vacationing from Hawaii, and dive guide, Ruel, a native of the island.

On my first shore dive off Balay at night we saw a turtle resting on a soft coral that swam away no matter how hard we tried not to spook it.  There were the leaf-like razorfishes and a very curious cuttlefish that did not want to move away even if Ruel approached and tickled its back.

We dived Mamsa and Coconut via negative entry because the surface was too choppy to be bobbing about waiting for our buddies to get off the boat.  While Rock East was leeward, we just went straight to the bottom wasting no time on the surface.

On Mamsa meters away, we glimpsed at the dark shadowy mass of schooling trevallies.  Having had the experience of being inside the vortex of these schooling fishes, I was wondering if following a few wandering trevallies would lead me to their school.

Soft corals were bountiful over at Rock East and it is amazing to see them in an endless field.  A turtle slowly wiggled its body from the soft coral that it made bed and swam away as we approached.  There were two huge Queensland or could Malabar gropers milling about while we saw the school of redtooth trigger fishes moving up and down en masse against the slow current.

Coconut is one of the exciting dives because of the underwater  current.  Ruel briefed of a succession of three sea mounts that move current downwards and seaward as the main current hit them; and if we were lucky and if the current were that strong, we could be holding on to rocks with the schooling trevallies right above us.  We saw three large ones but did not see the school.  Just before we hit the third sea mount we saw a field of bubbles coming out from the sand.  It was interesting -- like rain, but upside down.  I stretched my arms and  yelled "yahooo!" as we let the current carry us over and above the  last sea mount.

All the underwater photos, the photo of dive site, and the video of the cuttlefish are Julian's, to whom I am very thankful for sharing.  Wherever you both are, I wish you a good year of diving in 2011.

Am I going back to the island? Definitely, because Jojo has to see it for herself.

Kelly had the sharp eyes to spot this octopus during our early dive off Coconut.  Upon seeing this she yelled the loudest yell underwater catching the attention of Ruel who then pointed the creature to us.

This frogfish is a resident of Mamsa.  At this site we saw schooling trevallies although they were farther out from the shore because the current was slower than where we were.  We also saw two bumphead parrot fishes, a scorpion fish and a banded sea snake.

Kelly and Julian getting ready for a dive.  Here on this small boat we kit up and dangle off the side with our fins on.  Then we just roll into the water for the dive.

Fellow guest at Balicasag island, Damian Kruger, to Telibert on FB: "How does Apo compare to Balicasag?"


"Vast field of soft and hard corals..very impressive. There were big trevallys but we only saw the wanderers (those who missed school?). We tried chasing the school that were a bit farther out into the blue. Our DM said they are closer to the wall when the currents are strong. There are also a number of sea mounts directing currents to different directions that make drift diving more exciting. Apo was declared a protected area in the early 80s and you can tell from coral growth.


There are 1,200 persons on the island, which is at least twice the size of Balicasag. The community has clustered villages that offers a nice walkabout along with island's also lighthouse and view deck. Power is available only from 6pm to 12mn. Idyllically situated privately-run nine-room Apo Island Beach Resort forewarns of no running water but water is always available albeit in buckets. A fellow guest from a foreign diplomatic corps who currently resides with her family in Hong Kong said that they chose Apo because it was the "real deal". I guess she meant the 'real rural deal'.

Both Balicasag and Apo have different charms but both guarantee good diving."