Diving Balicasag (Bohol, Philippines)

Six dives are all I could muster that November. But they were great dives!

Balicasag is a coral island off the coast of Panglao, Bohol (Philippines). The sunfish shaped piece all of 25-hectares is home to 150 families of 700 individuals. The name seems to have referred to once-abundant crabs (casag) crawling on the shores that were upturned on their backs (bali) by the surf – bali casag.

The six dive sites around the island are no more than five minutes away from the Balicasag Island Dive Resort (BIDR) by outboard speed boat. There are the Cathedral, Marine Sanctuary, Turtle Point, Diver's Haven, Black Forest and Royal Garden.

I glided along the famed schooling barracuda and bigeye trevallys all bunch up in one ball of silvery fish at Diver's Haven! What an experience and what a sight! Famed because the wall of the BIDR coffee shop has this magnificent international winning photo of barracudas and trevallys schooling together. Amazing, isn't it?!

(http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1299653830875&set=a.1299653790874.39358.1816311181)

(http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1299654270886&set=a.1299653790874.39358.1816311181&pid=562390&id=1816311181)

Boater Beboy brought dive master Reynaldo (Aldo), a 79-year old Japanese diver and a 20-year Balicasag island habitue, and I to Black Forest. Since 1996 this Japanese diver has logged close to 800 dives (and counting) just in Balicasag and most of it at Diver's Haven. With fair current and some fin kicks we surfaced after an hour just above the reef across the resort. That's the entire half of the island! The following day, the current took us the other way across. 

Soft and hard corals abound all around the island. Like a mushroom top the short slopes circling the island provide very interesting habitats to all sorts of creatures. Sea turtles are a common sight; a friend asked if I had seen the “residents” at Turtle Point. At one point, I was face-to-face with a big cuttlefish as we were moving from Black Forest to Royal Garden. The slopes abruptly end with vertical drops into bottomless dark making diving much more interesting and exciting. Any diver knows that.


Here are some great images from Damian Kruger and Naomi Roe.  (Makes me rethink if I should carry a camera myself.)  Great shots guys!  Do you think this is the same cuttlefish I had ran into.  'Hope we'll run into each other again, perhaps on Apo Island?  What say you?



(http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1617851879195&set=a.1617849079125.2085012.1023323986&pid=31665865&id=1023323986)

Naomi Roe "cha-sea-ing" the Turtle

(http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1617850599163&set=a.1617849079125.2085012.1023323986&pid=31665857&id=1023323986)


(http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1617852759217&set=a.1617849079125.2085012.1023323986&pid=31665872&id=1023323986)

Truly a master of Balicasag, Aldo, who moved from Anilao (in Batangas, which is another nice diving area in the Philippines) to the island 20 years ago, took me navigating from one cave-like coral overhangs into another. We tried to find the pygmy seahorses and ghost pipefishes but they were not about to show themselves to us. Perhaps some other time as it is definitely worth coming back to Balicasag.

The Balicasag Island Dive Resort (http://www.philtourism.com/bidr_desc.html) is a government-run 20-room facility. Belonging to the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) of the Philippine Tourism Authority, the resort employs 80 where 90 percent of which are original island residents. Working alongside the Philippine Navy, the tourism authority “promotes underwater sports and protects a marine life sanctuary showcasing a model for marine environment conservation, ecological preservation and tourism” for Balicasag (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1816311181&sk=info).

Mayen Go (middle), a very-able and charming change-manager, along with here great team will certainly welcome you warmly to the island of Balicasag. You can count on that!