CRITTER
COUNTRY
Critters. Critters. Critters. Be they crustaceans, molluscs, echinoderms
or bizarre fish species, critters are one of the main reasons that we love to
dive and take photos. Critters were also the main reason we recently headed to
Puerto Galera, as this is critter country.
Located on the northern tip of the Philippine
island
of
Mindoro
, Puerto Galera was once a safe anchorage for Spanish galleons with the name
meaning ‘Port of the Galleons’. Being close to
Manila
, the coral reefs in the area have always been popular with divers and were
protected as a marine reserve in 1973. Puerto Galera is now so popular with
divers that it is virtually over-run with dive resorts, which crowd the beaches
at Sabang, Small La Laguna, Big La Laguna and
Coco
Beach
.
We dived Puerto Galera with La Laguna Beach Club and Dive
Centre (LLBC), which is located on Big La Laguna Beach, probably the nicest
beach in the area. The resort has 31 rooms, a restaurant, pool, bar and offer
dive courses, including Tech diving, and daily boat dives to the forty odd dive
sites in the area.
The diving off Puerto Galera is simply brilliant. We didn’t
know what to expect from an area that is extremely over-crowded with divers, but
were very happy to see abundant marine life, mostly healthy corals and
surprisingly uncrowded dive sites. With so many dive sites in the area, we
nearly always had the dive sites to ourselves to enjoy.
LLBC run several dive boats, and with most dive sites only
minutes from the resort, single tank dives are the order of the day. They are
also very flexible with their dive times, running them to suit the guests, and
on most dives it was just the two of us and our irreplaceable guide Ogin. Ogin
and the other guides working at LLBC seem to know where every type of critter
can be found in the area. Before most dives we would put in our request for a
particular species and Ogin would take us to the best dive site to see it
without fail. And of course at every one of these dive sites we would also see a
host of other critters and many wonderful surprises.
THE FROGIES
Our first request was for one of our most favourite critters, frogfish,
so Ogin took us to the Sabang Wrecks. The Sabang Wrecks are a collection of
three small scuttled boats in various states of decomposition in 18m to 22m. The
first wreck we explored was the skeletal remains of a timber vessel that is home
to abundant fish life. Batfish, tuskfish, wrasse, parrotfish, butterflyfish,
rock cod, hawkfish and pufferfish were just some of the species we saw. It
didn’t take Ogin long to find the first frogfish, in fact he found two giant
frogfish sitting together on the bow of the wreck. After photographing these two
lovely frogies we searched around the wreck to see mantis shrimps, cleaner
shrimps, lionfish and a variety of nudibranchs.
The next wreck was more intact and appeared to be a small
yacht. This wreck is very colourful, decorated with soft corals and sponges, and
was home to another frogfish, a very photogenic painted frogfish. Crossing the
sand between the wrecks there was heaps to see, including octopus, moray eels,
sand anemones, sea stars and some large sea pens, home to very small crabs.
The final wreck was broken up and swarming with batfish.
Hundreds of shrimps live on this wreck and we also saw several moray eels.
Heading into the shallows we investigated every clump of coral we passed. Ogin
pointed out nudibranchs, shrimps, clown anemonefish and even several ornate
ghost pipefish. We also found two very unusual spotted soapfish, a group of
shrimpfish and ended the dive by finding one last frogfish, a huge green and
pink coloured giant frogfish.
SEA STALLIONS
Next on our list were sea horses, so it was off to dive The Boulders. This site consists of
numerous large boulders that are coated with wonderful soft corals, sea whips,
sponges and gorgonians. However, we swam straight past these boulders to explore
the rubble at 30m. Here Ogin found three thorny sea horses. These little
beauties are a wonderful photographic subject, being multi-coloured with hues of
yellow, pink and orange. Also on the rubble we saw sea pens, leatherjackets, a
tiny octopus, gobies, anemones and several royal hypselodoris, a spectacular
purple coloured nudibranch. The shallows here also housed lots of critters,
including more nudibranchs, hundreds of yellow robust sea cucumbers, lionfish
and an exquisite juvenile pinnate batfish.
REEFIES HOTEL
Reef sharks are only occasionally seen on the reefs off Puerto Galera,
unless you head to the
Shark
Cave
. Sitting in 27m at this dive site are ledges and caves where white tip reef
sharks rest during the day. The main cave has a ceiling covered in soft corals
and tubastra. Our torches revealed squirrelfish, rock cod and one shy reef
shark. However, at the next cave there were three reef sharks enjoying their
daytime slumber.
The corals at this site are very impressive, large
gorgonians, huge barrel sponges, long sea whips and radiant soft corals. Reef
fish are abundant, as they are at all the dive sites in the area, and we enjoyed
the antics of three moray eels squeezed together in one hole.
TASTY MANDARINS
One of Helen’s special requests was for Mandarinfish, which saw Ogin
take us to dive The Hill late one afternoon. This dive site is located in the
Batangas Channel, so doesn’t always have the best visibility, but it makes up
for this with an abundance of critters. In depths from 5m to 15m there are
numerous bommies here covered with sponges, soft corals and gorgonians. We saw
giant clams, sweetlips, rock cods, lionfish, pipefish, fairy basslets and
several mantis shrimps.
Ogin took us over to one very plain looking hard coral, and
after peering between the branches for several minutes we could see three
splendid Mandarinfish darting about, deep within the coral. No chance for a
photo, but it was great just to watch these gorgeous little fish. Around the
bommies we also found nudibranchs, shrimps, an ornate ghost pipefish, shrimpfish
and a lovely long-nosed hawkfish. While on the sand we encountered several j
awfish in their holes and a spectacular reptilian snake eel.
If that wasn’t enough, Ogin then took us over the sea grass
beds to see several thorny sea horses and a very unusual weedy sea horse, which
we have not identified yet.
CHANGE OF SCENRY
Taking a break from critters we explored the Alma Jane Wreck one morning.
This 35m long cargo ship was scuttled in 2003 and now rests in 30m. It is a
great wreck to dive, with the hold and wheelhouse accessible, but we soon found
ourselves more interested in the marine life and critters. Schools of batfish
and sweetlip were swarming around the bow of the wreck, while we also saw
lionfish, banded pipefish and a juvenile ghost pipefish. More critters were on
show as we swam into the shallows, including hundreds of fire urchins, another
giant frogfish, lots of nudibranchs and two very cute cuttlefish.
PYGMY PONIES
Pygmy sea horses are always on our list of things to see, so we did a
dive along the beautiful drop-off at Sinandigan Wall. With a gentle current this
is a brilliant wall dive with lots of colourful corals and abundant reef fish,
including a few Maori wrasse. Ogin took us to a small pink gorgonian where he
pointed out several tiny Bargibant’s pygmy sea horses. These magical fish are
so beautiful, but a challenge to photograph and extremely hard to find without
an excellent guide.
On other dives we saw leaf scorpionfish, garden eels, banded
sea snakes and many other wonderful critters. We only sampled a handful of the
Puerto Galera dive sites, but encountered an astonishing array of marine life.
We will have to return, as we still had a few other critters on our list for
Ogin to find, such as blue ribbon eels, stargazers, harlequin shrimps, ….
Information and bookings – La Laguna Beach
Club and Dive Centre
Article appeared in EZ
Dive No.4 Dec 2009/Jan 2010