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Diving The Far Side: Pandan Island & Apo Reef |
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Source: The Philippine Diver |
Author: Ernie Long |
Date: 1999-09-30 |
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You may of heard of Apo Reef but most likely not Pandan Island. There are a few Pandan?s amongst the 7000+
islands which make up the Philippines. They are named after a cactus-like plant.
This Pandan is a small island (24 HA) 2 miles off the west coast of Mindoro, (mid-way north to south). Pandan can
be described by all of the usual good words: remote, rustic, charming, scenic, unique, magical, and so on. It offers
white sand beaches, jungle coverage and a good selection of birds. Unlike other tourist-places, this is a place with
zero hassles and no vendors of any kind. Although in the last 2 years it has been on the top-ten-list of the best
travel-guidebook available (Lonely Planet), the general area has very little tourist activity.
Pandan has the only dive operation close enough to do day trips to Apo Reef, about one hr. by speed boat.
Pandan is a success story for setting up a marine sanctuary around the island. This was a cooperative effort
between the local Mayor of Sablayan, the dive operator and the Pandan Resort. They just simply got together and
agreed between them that the area should be a marine sanctuary. This was good for the local area to provide a
breeding ground for fish and good for the resort and dive operation to improve the diving. The number of fish
increased much faster than anyone had expected. Everyone thought the area would need to go through a full
reproductive cycle before the difference would be noticed, but this was not the case: to everyone?s surprise the
fish began to increase almost instantly. Fish migrated from the adjacent areas and stayed. Within a year, the
sanctuary was a thriving eco-system.
Pandan?s coast is 80% covered by fringing coral reef. It starts right off the beach and its slopes or walls reach as
far as 50 meters deep. The u/w landscape and variety of life is impressive for such a small island: hard and soft
corals cover slopes, walls, u/w hills and crevasses while further down gorgonians, whip-corals and big sponges have
a home. At exactly 40m a lonely black coral in the shape of an Xmas tree attracts frequent visitors. All kinds of fish
except sharks have been sighted, including rarities such as big frog-fish, lead-fish, crocodile-fish and a 7 foot
grouper, although coral-fish are dominant.
NAPOLEON wall, at 30m, named after wrasse frequently encountered there, also attracts pelagic fish: tunas,
mackerel and jacks prefer to show up in the later afternoon, whereas swarms of fusiliers and goggle-eyes seem to
favor the shallower (10-20m) coral gardens.
APO REEF has (once more) become a marine sanctuary. A large offshore reef system (20 km x 20 km), for many
years it was considered to be the best diving in the Philippines, but due to illegal fishing pr-actices it lost its
rep-utation ab-out 10 yea-rs ago. The shallow areas have not fully recovered yet but the wa-lls were not really
affected by the fishing practices. Apo reef is one of the favourite spots for local divers wanting to see the bigger
animals (mantas, hammerheads, whitetips, grays, tuna, barracuda, turtles, etc.). I personally expect it to return to
its former glory much faster than the experts predict.
Pandan Island has a small 14 cottage resort. It is a back to nature place. The complex runs on a 12 volts solar
charged electrical system. It has a well equipped dive operation (Whitetip Divers). They have a large banca for
safaris to Apo Reef and the wrecks in Coron Bay and do a couple of trips a year to Tubbataha. They also have a 25
ft speed boat for day trips to Apo Reef. Whitetip Divers instructors cover a wide range of languages: English,
French, German, Hebrew and Czech. They also offer both PADI and NAUI courses. Pandan has it?s own NAUI course
director and offers IDC?s.
Pandan boasts a variety of diving right around the island.
HOUSE REEF: Depths between 5-20 m. Ideal for beginners or a warm-up dive. A wide variety of coral fish such as
parrot fish, butterfly fish, soldier fish, trigger fish and sergeant-majors can be seen. Nearby, Lionfish Den consists of
a couple of rocks overgrown with soft and hard corals teeming with Lionfish.
CORAL GARDEN EAST & WEST: Depths between 5-25 m. Another easy but beautiful dive. In a virtual garden of soft
and hard corals all kinds of marine life can be watched such as surgeon fish, triggerfish, coraltrout, stingrays, moray
eels, sand eels and an occasional octopus. In the deeper parts of the dive site large gorgonians and Neptune cups
are abundant.
NAPOLEON WALLS: Depths between 30-40 m. On the edge of the wall at 30m big schools of snappers and mackerels
can be watched, although the big attraction of this dive site are the Napoleon wrasse reaching up to 1.5 m in size.
Tunas and trevallys are common visitors to this reef that is overgrown with gorgonians. At the right time of the
month drift dives can be made until Coral Garden East.
NEPTUNE?S LAND: This dive is a flat plateau connecting Napoleon Wall and the Coral Garden East. As the name
indicates, Neptune cups to considerable size can be found. Also, turtles seem to favour this place.
ANCHOR/CHRISTMAS TREE: On an UW hill at a depth of 32 m, completely overgrown by corals, a huge anchor has
come to rest at least 50 years ago. Snappers, barracudas and pelagic fish can be seen. At the bottom of the hill
(40m) is a tree-like sea nettle, all white.
NORTH WALL: A sheer drop from 7 to about 35 m. makes this an exciting dive. Although not as many fish as in other
parts of the island can be seen, the overhanging corals create a very special atmosphere. Pelagic fish such as tuna
and mackerel are frequent.
BARRACUDA DEEP: Depth from 30-45 m. Probably the most advanced dive around the island. A wall at 30 m. depth
facing the South China Sea is the place to see big schools of trevally, fusiliers, surgeon fish, Spanish mackerel and
unicorn fish. Eagle rays and Napoleon wrasse are often seen as well as barracuda up to a size of 1.5 m. The whole
wall is overgrown with hard and soft corals and the gorgonians reach a considerable size.
APO REEF still holds the excitement of an off-shore reef surrounded by very deep water. It is a gathering place for
the big animals of the deep.
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