Tubbataha Reefs
UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscribed 1993; A No Take Reef In The Middle Of The Sulu Sea, Reachable By Liveaboard For Roughly Three Months A Year · Cagayancillo, Palawan
TUBBATAHA SITS ALONE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SULU SEA, ABOUT A HUNDRED AND FIFTY KILOMETRES FROM PUERTO PRINCESA, AND THAT DISTANCE IS WHY IT IS STILL INTACT. Nobody lives there - two atolls and a reef, with a ranger station on stilts and nothing else - and IT HAS BEEN A STRICT NO-TAKE MARINE PARK SINCE 1988 and a World Heritage Site since 1993. WHAT THAT PROTECTION HAS PRODUCED IS A REEF THAT LOOKS THE WAY REEFS ARE SUPPOSED TO: walls dropping past a thousand metres, SHARKS ON EVERY DIVE RATHER THAN AS AN EVENT, turtles, schooling jacks and barracuda, and mantas. IT IS DIVEABLE FOR ROUGHLY THREE MONTHS A YEAR - about mid-March to mid-June - because outside that window the Sulu Sea is too rough to sit on. LIVEABOARD IS THE ONLY WAY. Boats book a year ahead and the permit fees are substantial, and both of those facts are part of why it survives. Advanced certification is expected, the crossing is ten hours, and there is no land at all.
Tubbataha Reefs Natural Park, Sulu Sea, Palawan, Cagayancillo, Palawan, Philippines
THERE IS NO DAY ACCESS AND NO LAND ACCOMMODATION - TUBBATAHA IS VISITED ONLY ON LIVEABOARD DIVE BOATS departing from PUERTO PRINCESA, a crossing of roughly ten hours each way. THE SEASON IS ABOUT THREE MONTHS, ROUGHLY MID-MARCH TO MID-JUNE, and outside it the sea is too rough for the boats to work - this is not a preference, it is the whole calendar. TRIPS ARE FIVE TO SEVEN NIGHTS AND BOOK UP TO A YEAR IN ADVANCE. A SUBSTANTIAL CONSERVATION FEE IS CHARGED PER DIVER on top of the boat. IT IS A STRICT NO-TAKE ZONE: nothing is fished, collected, touched or anchored on, and the RANGER STATION ENFORCES IT. ADVANCED CERTIFICATION AND LOGGED EXPERIENCE ARE EXPECTED - there are currents and there is no chamber nearby.