NEWS - Emirates Diving Association

MARICIBAN ISLAND, PHILIPPINES
Feature AND PHOTOGRAPHY © GORDON T. SMITH
For further information contact Josie Evans via e-mail at pisadive@yahoo.com or by phone +63 92 73 71 39 37
I frequently travel a lot on my own on business
and also on many of my dive trips, generally
because when I have free time to travel my
dive buddies don’t!
Recently I had a rather impromptu trip to the
Philippines which despite being unplanned
turned out to be another one of these gems
that occur in my life from time to time.
Work rules my life and these days I have
very little opportunity to go diving here
in the UAE, never mind overseas. So after
several conversations with a charming young
lady about how good the diving is around
Mariciban and Bonito Islands just off Batangas
in the Philippines, I decided to go ahead and
check it out for myself.
The nine hour flight to Manila is tiring, and
given a 03:45 departure from Dubai to arrive
in the late afternoon plays havoc with the
internal body clock. Fortunately I managed a
few hours sleep. On arrival at Manila airport,
everything was pretty straight forward and
very soon I was in my hotel.
The following morning, a car had been
arranged for my transport to the boat near
Batangas. Remarkably after escaping the
metropolis of Manila the drive to Batangas
was pretty straightforward and it only took
two and a half hours to reach Mabini (west
of Batangas), where we then boarded a large
banca (outrigger boat) for the 30 minute
journey to Maricaban.
Mariciban Island Resort is not a five star luxury
palace by any means, with no electricity during
the day, no air conditioning, no flushing toilets
and other amenities that one normally takes
for granted. That being said, the hospitality and
good wholesome food makes up for it and
once you stick your head under the water…
WOW!
On the first dive just off Bonito Island I was
blown away by the clarity of the water, totally
incredible with 20M+ viz, not something I
am used to with diving around the UAE.
It reminded me of my first dive just north
of Jeddah in the Red Sea way back in 1986,
pristine corals and clear clean water.
There were three of us diving including the
owner of the resort (Josie Evans) who had a
list of critters to find for me to photograph,
the top of which was of course nudibranchs,
and she did not fail me.
The colours of the feather stars and corals was
astounding, and the fish life totally awesome,
plus ten different species of nudibranchs on
one dive!
I had only brought one lens with me to use
underwater and that was my 60mm micro
attached to my D300. However the water was
so clear that using my 105mm lens would have
been possible with no problem, and plenty of
wide angle opportunities in some areas too.
Next time…and that will not be long…there
is that elusive mantis shrimp and a few other
critters that I need to photograph.
I will let the photos speak for themselves, this
is a nudibranch paradise and I barely scratched
the surface with a few days diving. The great
thing about this resort is the low impact on
the environment because it is back to basic
living, that being said the amount of divers is
minimal and that low impact is reflected by the
quality of the reefs and marine life around the
island, even straight off the beach.
76 EMIRATES DIVING ASSOCIATION, SEPTEMBER 2010 SEPTEMBER 2010, EMIRATES DIVING ASSOCIATION 77