Apo Reef Natural Park

Sablayan · Occidental Mindoro · Philippines

Apo Reef Natural Park encompasses the largest contiguous coral reef system in the Philippines, a massive atoll structure rising from the depths of the Mindoro Strait that covers thirty-four square kilometers of protected marine territory. Despite being one of the most significant reef systems in the entire Coral Triangle, Apo Reef remains relatively unknown to international divers, overshadowed by the more accessible sites of Tubbataha and the Visayas. For those who make the journey, the reward is diving that stands among the finest the Philippines has to offer. The crossing from Sablayan took two and a half hours in a bangka, the western Mindoro coastline shrinking behind us as we pushed into the Mindoro Strait. Apo Reef announced itself first as a change in water color, the deep blue of the strait giving way to the lighter turquoise of shallow reef. A small island with a ranger station and lighthouse marked the northern end, and we anchored on its leeward side. My first dive was on the outer wall of the western reef flat, and the scale of the coral coverage was immediately overwhelming. The reef top sat at three to five meters, a vast table of staghorn, plate, and brain corals stretching in every direction as far as visibility allowed. The wall dropped away cleanly to forty meters, its face decorated with enormous sea fans, barrel sponges, and thickets of black coral that swayed in the gentle current. Whitetip reef sharks were a constant presence, resting on sandy ledges during the day and cruising the wall edge at dawn and dusk. At twenty-five meters on the western wall, I encountered a group of six grey reef sharks circling a cleaning station, their sleek bodies tilted slightly as cleaner wrasse worked over their gills. Napoleon wrasse of exceptional size -- easily over a meter in length -- approached with the bravado that only protected-area residents develop.