SCUBA News 121

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SCUBA News (ISSN 1476-8011)
Issue 121 - May 2010
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk
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Welcome to SCUBA News. This month we've a report on the diving around the island of Malapascua in the Philippines. A great place to see both large creatures like sharks, and tiny animals like pygmy seahorses.

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SCUBA News is published by SCUBA Travel Ltd, the independent guide to diving around the world.

Contents:
- What's new at SCUBA Travel?
- Letters
- Diving Malapascua, Philippines
- Diving News from Around the World

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What's New at SCUBA Travel?
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Top Ten Dives of the World

The Yongala narrowly holds its position as the top dive site in the world, but there is just one vote separating it from Palau's Blue Corner Wall. See the newly updated list at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/topdives.html

Diving Sharm El-Sheikh, Red Sea

Two of the top ten dives in the world are in the Sharm El-Sheikh area, and we've updated our coverage of this Red Sea spot.
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/sharm-diving.html
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/redsea/sharmdive.html

Diving Greece

Lots of new comments on the diving around the Greek Islands this month, so we've created a new Greece page at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/europe/greece-diving.html

More...

For regular announcements of what's new at the SCUBA Travel site see the Diving Board at
http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=2

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Letters
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Disabled Diving in Sharm El-Sheikh

I visited Sharm El-Sheikh for the first time in September. As a disabled person (tetraplegia, a full time wheelchair user) who had not dived before I decided to take a couple of introductory lessons with Cybaqua - Mike's Dive Shop in Warrington. After a very sucessful introduction here in the UK I was bitterly disappointed when I arrived in Egypt that several dive centres werent interested in taking my custom as they saw my disability as a huge problem, I'm convinced that one very well known centre actually saw it as an open cheque book, demanding nearly 500 pounds for one day's class work and two introductory dives.

On the recommendation of Ron a fellow guest from our hotel and a very experienced diver I went along to the Aquarius Dive Centre who were very supportive affordable. With their encouragement and support throughout two days which included four dives I have been inspired to progress with the sport. I am now studying and planning to take my PADI Open Water before we return. With my very limited movement which is restricted to my left arm I found the whole experience of open water very liberating, one that I hope to feel many times during the coming years.

Dave Thompson

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Diving Corfu, Greece

I know the Red Sea is fantastic, but it also can be frantic. Scotland's west coast is great but cold. Paleocastritsa, Corfu (in Greece) is my favourite compromise.

This whole area is a hidden gem of underwater caves and arches, sometimes a bit more mystery than say the Red Sea now so well dived. Here you sometimes feel its a new adventure exploring. One dive myself and the divemaster acompanying discovered a new link between one cave and another better known one by dropping down a steep gully and creeping under a rock sill into the rear of a better known cave! There are also some wrecks, very nice, if you can get a day trip to the northern island near Mathraki. This is more an expedition, but we did a dive on a cement coaster (fairly intact but split down reef to 35 mtres) and a costal tanker barge in 20-25 level on flat sand. Getting right inside fairly intact engine room and cabin/wheelhouse.

With careful flight sourcing (thanks Easyjet) and accommodation which can be inexpensive booked direct once you make friends with the locals. Self catering apartment within 10 mins walk of the dive centre cost 180 Euro for the week (2 Adults)in September. Warmest water and if it maybe rains, who cares, it's warm and we are getting wet anyway! Also good discounts on diving September/October at season's end.

Donald

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Diving Trip to Malapascua, Phillipines
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Malapascua is a small island off the northern tip of Cebu island, that has some unique features to interest divers. We booked through Wanderlust Vacations in Hong Kong who were very helpful and organised the trip including flights, accommodation and diving.

Getting There

We flew direct from Hong Kong to Cebu on Cathay Pacific. The alternative is to go via Manila, then on to Cebu. Cebu airport is comfortable and efficient, but is a bit stretched when the larger planes arrive. The airport tax to leave Cebu is 550 pesos.

We were met outside the terminal by a representative of the Exotic Island Resort, and transferred to a minibus. The journey to Maya at the northern end of Cebu province takes between 2.5 to 3 hours depending on traffic. Fropm Maya it was an open boat ride (with a sunshade) across to Malapascua, from half to three quarters of an hour, depending on the boat. We were overtaken by a rain storm, so arrived on the island quite wet.

Be warned, it will cost 20 pesos per piece of luggage to transfer to the boat, and at low tide you will take an intermediate small boat out to the ferry that takes you to the island, which will cost up to 200 pesos, so get some small denomination notes before you go.

Exotic Island Dive Resort

Established since 1998, this is the pioneer resort for diving in Malapascua. There are 3 levels of rooms: Twin single beds with a fan, Twin single beds (or a double bed) deluxe with air con, and Twin double beds and air con as super deluxe.

The centre is 5*+ PADI and National Geographic certified and can arrange dive courses from Open Water through to IDC training. There are 5 dive boats available, 4 large capable of journeys of 1 hour + away from the island, and one smaller boat used to visit nearby dive sites.

The Diving

Our dive guide was Toto who has 10 years diving experience around Malapascua, and a wonderful eye for spotting the smallest and well camoflaged creatures.

Every resort has a house reef and the one at Exotic is mainly artificial with objects such as dead Jimny's, metal frameworking etc deliberately sunk onto the sand to form a reef, with depths of 8-14m. Corals are now well established over much of the sunken items, and there is a good variety of macro life to look for.

East Garden is a marine reserve, so the hard and soft corals are well established and undamaged. The depth is around 12 m. There is lots of macro life and we saw several small crustacea living on sponges and corals.

One of Malapascua's unique dive sites is Monad Shoal. This is a sea mount, or sunken island about half the size of Malapascua itself. The depth of the top plateau is between 15-23m, and is surrounded by a sharp drop-off. If you get there early in the morning, there is around a 50% chance is seeing one or more Thresher sharks which come up from the depths to be cleaned at the various cleaning stations around the edge of the plateau.

We left the resort at 5:00 am, and had a 30 minute boat journey to the shoal. When we got near the first cleaning station a large (12 foot nose to tail) Thresher shark was already there, and which stayed for 25 minutes. There are also Devil rays around to watch and in April the Manta rays return and come for cleaning as well - we saw a juvenile.

Gato Island is also a marine reserve and is a limestone rock about 1 hour from the resort. It is famous for the numbers of sea snakes in the water around it. On the day we went the water was quite rough, so we moored at the south end in the lea of the island where the water was a bit calmer. Normally divers go half way around the island and get picked up at the other side, allowing a full tour in 2 two dives. Lots of White-tip Reef Sharks resting in the caves which are all around the island. Again excellent hard and soft coral life.

Kemod Shoal, is a similar shoal to Monad shoal, but smaller in size and further away. The aim is to get here very early (we left at 4:30 am) swim off the plateau at around 10-12m and out into the blue, then drop down to 30m, and fin slowly through the water in hope that the Hammerhead sharks will be about. On the day we went, they were not, but still an interesting diving experience.

We also dived at North Point - with pigmy seahorses, and frog fish the highlights, and at Pantaw-Pantaw - a relatively new dive site, where we saw two frog fish, two octopuses, two nudibranchs mating, shrimp and miniature crabs around.

by Graham Collins

If you would like to contribute a trip report to SCUBA News, please don't hesitate to send it to us.

More information on diving the Philippines is at http://www.scubatravel.co.uk/philippines/

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Diving News From Around the World
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Dolphins bully porpoises, researcher discovers

Why are dolphins killing porpoises? Researchers are hoping a listening device could solve the mystery.

Killer Seaweed Damages Reefs

Several common species of seaweeds in both the Pacific (Fiji) and Caribbean (Panama) can kill corals upon contact. Seaweeds are normally kept in check by herbivorous fish. But in many areas overfishing has reduced the populations of these plant-consumers, allowing seaweeds to overrun coral reefs.

British Fish Stocks Decline by 94%

The UK trawl fishing fleet has to work 17 times harder to catch the same amount of fish today as it did when most of its boats were powered by sail, according to new research. The findings suggest the decline in stocks of popular fish such as cod, haddock and plaice is far more profound than previously thought.

Tracking the habits of the Mediterranean squid

A group of scientists are tagging squid in the Mediterranean, in a bid to learn its habits. At the moment it is not known what it does, whether there are migrations at night, or where it moves.

The BSAC Photographic Competition 2010 is now open

The BSAC (British Sub-Aqua Club) Photographic Competition runs from the 1st May to 31st January 2011. They are now inviting monthly submissions for each of the 2010 competition categories.

WWF Pushes for Fisheries Reform

Environmental group World Wildlife Fund and leading associations for European seafood processors and retailers announced this week that they will collaborate toward solutions to the crisis of European seas and fisheries.

Greenpeace confronts Mediterranean Tuna Fishermen

The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior has headed off to sea on a campaign to defend the Mediterranean and halt destructive bluefin tuna fishing operations.

Did faulty cement prime Deepwater Horizon for blowout?

A failed cement plug and ignored warning signs could have contributed to the blowout of an exploration well in the Gulf of Mexico

Deep-water oil spills do their damage deep down

Surface slicks may account for as little as 2 per cent of the oil now spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. The study challenges the estimate by federal officials, based on the amount of oil on the sea surface, that around 5000 barrels (800 cubic metres) of oil per day are pouring into the sea from the site where the BP-operated drilling rig Deepwater Horizon was destroyed by fire last month. It also adds weight to reports of massive underwater oil plumes that government officials are now downplaying.

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