Philippines Aggressor 2023

April 9, 2023

The Location

Tubbataha Reef

The Diving (From Aggressor Adventure Logs)

April 2nd, Sunday:

1st Dive. We sailed all night long until we arrived to “Jessie Bezley” , the smallest reef of Tubbataha which is a couple hours far sailing from the north Atoll, this little island was our first stop this morning to start our diving trip. We started at the east side and we could enjoy seeing a school of rainbow runners, school of big eye jackfish, one big dog tooth tuna, small napoleon wrast, and lots of white tip sharks.

2nd Dive. We did it at the western side of “Jessie Bezley”. Lots of sharks, this time there were more grey reef sharks than white tip sharks swimming around us and we saw some barracudas hunting as well.

3rd Dive. From Jessie Bezley we came to the north Atoll of Tubbataha Reef. We went to the north part of the Atoll to “Seafan Alley”, this dive site is a nice wall dive where there are plenty of sea fan corals everywhere, here we saw plenty of sharks again, several nice nudibranchs, and 3 hawksbill turtle swimming nicely in the reef.

4th Dive. We remained at the Northern point of the north Atoll to stay over the night around this area. We did our last dive of the day at “Terraces”, also a wall dive not far from the previous one. We saw a little school of barracudas, fusiliers, snappers and so many moray eels.

April 3rd, Monday:

1st Dive. We spent the last nigh drifting near the North Atoll and we started the day at “The Washing Machine”, a very nice dive site which can be quite rough when there is strong current, luckily the current was not too strong today and we had an easy dive. We had plenty of white tip and grey reef sharks, 2 big dog tooth tuna swimming around, a school of surgeon fish, and some barracudas.

2nd Dive. Southern than the previous dive we have “The Shark Airport”, this place is called like that because we can see here many white tip sharks lying down on the ground and it looks like plenty of planes parked at the airport. We did see plenty of white sharks, also a huge school of unicorn surgeon fish, a couple of big dog tooth tuna patrolling around, and a school of rainbow runners.

3rd Dive. After lunch we did the south part of the wall at “The Shark Airport”, and we literally arrived to northern point of the wall because the current was so strong this time. We saw a big school of big eye jack fish swimming together in the shallower area, big dog tooth tuna one and plenty of reef fish everywhere.

4th Dive. At the end of the day we sailed to the south part of the North Atoll, to “The Ranger Station”, here is where the rangers of the marine reserve have their head quarters, some people went diving and some others went to visit the place doing a little land tour. This dive site has nice sandy slope were we could see blue spotted sting rays and many little creatures, a paradise for our macro lovers.

April 4th, Tuesday:

1st Dive. We were drifting the whole night so the north east wind brought us from the north Atoll to the South Atoll, very near to our first dive site of the day “Black rock”, which is a dive site known because it has a cleaning station for manta rays and sharks, we were not lucky with the manta rays but we had instead a school of baby grey reef sharks swimming around us, Napoleon wrast, school of batfish, 3 dog tooth tuna, and a school of rainbow runners.

2nd Dive. We repeated “Black Rock” and we approached the cleaning station from the opposite way than the prevous dive, in order to look for the manta rays but today they didn’t show up, so we will try to come back here again a couple of days later to see if we are lucky. Either way we did enjoy the dive with plenty of sharks swimming around, a school of milk fish which are similar than tuna, lots of angel fish, and 1 lobster walking out of his cave.

3rd Dive. After lunch we sailed to the west part, to “T Wreck” dive site, this place is a wall dive with multiple sea fan corals around which seems very beautiful. We had a school of big eyed jack fish, swimming around a school of fusiliers, after a while we saw 3 big tooth tuna swimming together, and a bunch of grey sharks and some white tip sharks lying down at the bottom.

4th Dive. To end up a great diving day, we kept going west and we went diving to the dive site called “KO-OK”. We started at the east part of the dive site, and we saw a nurse shark sleeping under a table coral, and a huge school of big barracudas, also we could enjoy a big school of bump head parrot fish swimming in the shallower part of the wall.

April 5th, Wednesday:

1st Dive. Early in the morning we sailed down of the South Atoll, and we arrived to “Delsan Wreck”, this dive site is one of our favorites in all the tubbataha Reefs Natural park. This dive site took his name from the wreck that lays on here. This wreck it was an oil ship which was broken, so it was wrecked on top of the reef by the captain in order to save the oil, around 30 years ago. Here we saw a big school of jack fish and right next to them there was another school of juvenile barracudas, few minutes later we saw a huge barracuda patrolling the shallower area it was a great experience for our divers, also there were plenty of white tip and grey sharks.

2nd Dive. Not far from the previous dive site we have “Trigger Fish City”, a beautiful dive site with a wall and a sandy slope on top of it, with a nice combination of hard and soft corals. Here we saw a really big giant barracuda, and after that I saw a group of giant trevallies swimming together with 5 big nurse sharks, they came so close to me that it was even scary, by the end of the dive we saw also a marble ray hiding covered by the sand, such a great dive today.

3rd Dive. We expect a stronger current because the tide is getting lower now so we came back to “Delsan wreck”, this place is amazingly full of life when there is strong current. Another group of divers really happy to see them, we also enjoyed with lots of reef fish and few green turtles.

4th Dive. Last dive of the day was ending with a really beautiful sunset, we went this time to “Staghorn Point “which is a dive site full of staghorn corals everywhere, the light was really nice at this time of the day and the guest were amazed with the beautiful seascape. We had school of different fish swimming together, batfish, midnight snappers, sweet lips and big eye jack fish, we also saw some beautiful clown trigger fish, and a huge giant trivially.

April 6th, Thursday:

1st Dive. Today is our last day in Tubbataha and we usually try to go to the highlights dive spots of Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, so we started with “Delsan Wreck”. Big school of jack fish in the shallow area, school of butterfly fish, a couple of big dog tooth tuna, many white tip and grey reef sharks and plenty of reef fish everywhere.

2nd Dive. Our second dive of the day, we did again at “Delsan Wreck” at the other side of the dive site. Again we could enjoy the big school of jack fish with a school of juvenile barracudas next to them, our guest saw octopus and scorpion fish as well, and into the blue we could find a big school of great barracudas, always with plenty of sharks and many reef fish swimming around us.

3rd Dive. After lunch we sailed to the North Atoll, to the dive site called “Malayan Wreck”, this dive site is a shallow wreck with a sandy area around and a beautiful wall next to it. We saw in this dive site a huge marble ray at 90 feet deep, a big school of barracudas, a school of midnight snappers, and school of fusiliers.

4th Dive. We were leaving soon to Palawan so the last dive of the day we did it at the dive site called “Jessie Bezley”. We ended up at the same place that we started the trip.

April 7th, Friday:

1st Dive. We traveled at night from Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park to Palawan Island to do our last 2 dives of the trip near Puerto Princesa. We did our first dive of the day at “Finger Reef”. A macro dive site where we found 4 pigmy sea horse, many different kinds of nudibranchs and many little crabs and shrimps.

2nd Dive. To end up our diving trip, we did our last dive at “The Light house”, this dive site is also a macro dive with lots of different kinds of nudibranchs, we also saw anemone crabs, and some kinds of different anemone clown fish.