EP19 - Diving in Coron Palawan

(picture 1)

Ornate Ghost Pipefish are very difficult to spot! At least when their surrounding background matches their camouflage. But this one I saw was ‘malling’ around the wreck that I easily spotted his weird looking shape. Ghost pipefish is a relative of seahorse and both rely on heavy body camouflage for self-defense and hunting. They don’t obviously have the capability to swim fast. ‘Ordinary’ elongated pipefish can at least swim and hide in the corals.

(picture 2)

It’s a new experience for me to see a school of fish attacking a jellyfish. The poor jelly dude has no escape from the hungry predators, but then again there are thousands of big, white jellyfish in Coron Bay that there’s no threat to their survival. Sea turtles are probably not aware that their favorite snack thrives in this place as I heard that there’s not much sightings of sea turtles here.

Coron
After more than 60 years, the big Japanese cargo ships sunk by the Americans during WWII are now giant artificial reefs teeming with a thousand corals and marine creatures. Wreck diving (penetration) will also provide you a glimpse of the past, as you swim thru the ship’s interior, as if strolling around a giant, underwater museum.

Unfortunately, some of the wrecks in the Philippines have been cannibalized or being ‘salvaged’ for cheap metal trade – throwing away our underwater, historical heritage for good. In Subic, at least 2 wrecks already ‘disappeared’. In Leyte, the historic site of McArthur’s re-entry to the Philippines during WWII, some wreck parts were already salvaged and sold to scrap buyers. If that is not a total lack of awareness, it’s probably plain stupidity and selfishness.

Let’s all Save our Wrecks, save our historical treasures, save our artificial reefs – and save a good future for the next generation.