THE PHILIPPINES

The national symbol of the Philippines is the critically endangered Philippine, or monkeyeating, eagle. It is the largest of all eagles, and was declared the national bird in 1995. It stands over three feet high and has a wingspan of almost seven feet.

Richard Stevens and Hailey Elizabeth from Black Manta Photography are smitten by the Philippines, in particular the Magic Islands and Magic Oceans resorts and their surrounding dive sites, and here they explain why the location is a diving paradise

Photography Black Manta Photography/ www.blackmantaphotography.com

If you were to view the Philippines from the air, you would be blinded by the most neon of blues and fluorescents of green, with specs of brown and white the only giveaway to the collection of islands below. Our first trip the Philippines was in 2017, when we ventured far and wide across the archipelago, covering Tubbataha, Bohol and Malapascua. It’s long been the dive destination of the moment, alongside its neighbor Indonesia, offering some of the best diversity in the coral triangle.

We desperately wanted to return to Bohol, to the friendly and homely dive resort at Magic Oceans, and we were lucky to be able to make it a twin-centre trip starting at their original, smaller resort in Moalboal, Magic Islands.

Magic Island, Moalboal Fourteen years have passed since Desiree and Arie took that tentative step in transitioning from the corporate world in Holland to owners of a dive resort on the southernmost tip of Moalboal, on the island of Cebu, Philippines. Talking to them about the changes they’ve implemented since day one, and how they learnt as they went along, is pretty awe-inspiring - it almost made us feel like we should be selling up at home and doing the same! What they have created is a ten-room, selfcontained resort that offers not only a high quality of accommodation, but also a tightly knitted team across all areas from hospitality to dive guides. Along with Concheng (resort manager) and Jamie (dive centre manager), they have built a real family atmosphere that we just weren’t expecting, and for us is one of the stand-out attributes of the resort. This probably explains why their repeat customer rate is just so high, and why so many new customers are flocking to experience some of their magic.

AVOID THE NUMBER 13 Some Filipinos are wary of the number 13, and will avoid having 13 people at a table. Also, steps to the main entranceof a household should not fall on a number divisible by three.

Talking of magic - let’s move over to the diving. The dive center sits underneath the resort, and resembles something that wouldn’t be out of place in a Batman movie. It has that ‘secret cave’ feel about it, and being situated right on the water’s edge you couldn’t be closer to the three ‘Magic Islands’ branded boats moored out by the house reef if you tried! Some dive centers in the area are spoilt with stunning house reefs, or close proximity to amazing dive sites - Magic Islands, however, has both in abundance!

The house reef is teeming with life from an array of nudibranchs in all shapes and sizes through to the many types of fish calling it home, and it’s impossible to venture across the house reef without coming face to face with a turtle. However, it will come as no surprise to the eagle-eyed diver that the resort logo is a mandarinfish. This is no ironic joke - oh no! TOP LEFT Seahorse

ABOVE Mandarinfish

FAR LEFT Pygmy seahorse

LEFT Dive boats at anchor

Tryng new foods is one of the joys of traveling. If you want to try something unique to the Philippines, sample camaro – field crickets cooked in soy sauce, vinegar and sugar – or papaitan, which is a goat or cow innards stew flavored with bile.

ABOVE Popcorn, or so-called ‘sexy shrimp’

TOP RIGHT Crinoid crab

RIGHT Goby on bubble anemone

BOTTOM RIGHT Anemonefish

FAR RIGHT Cleaner shrimp perched in an anemone As the sun starts to set and dusk draws close, these incredibly vibrant-colored fish climb higher in their stag coral metropolis and become far more active. Then as the light is just starting to fade your patience is rewarded with pairs of mating mandarinfish, riding high from the coral - interlocked and spiralling to a climax before parting and heading back to the safety of the reef. We’d seen mandarinfish before, but never seen the mating process, nor had we seen them in these numbers - they were everywhere, then just like someone hitting a switch it stopped. The incredible thing is this happens every night like clockwork. In fact, we were so sure, we headed out in the shallow water ourselves one night unguided, and had the entire show to ourselves - a moment we won’t forget in a hurry. Because of the location of Magic Islands, you are in easy reach of some of the best dive sites that Moalboal can offer. A short ride along the coast and you’ll find yourself at Panagsama - world famous for the sardine shoal that appears like clockwork every day on the same stretch of reef. Millions of fish swarming back and forth along the reef with a rhythmic and hypnotic sway is one of the mostmesmerising sights we’ve experienced, and the feeling of being encompassed by the sardine ball to the extent that the surface light and any reference point around you disappears really does make you realise how insignificant we as a human race can be at times. Other highlights include the dive sites on the island of Pescador, which is just a short boat journey away. The reef wall has an abundance of hard and soft corals in some stunning colors, and appears to be the home of every frogfish in the Philippines - I think we saw more of them on the two dives at Pescador than we have in the rest of the Philippines combined! It will always stand out in memory as the dive site where we witnessed a male frogfish flirting and chasing his prospective female lover around the reef

- unfortunately for him, she wasn’t entirely impressed! Another reason to visit the island of Pescador is to see the ‘skull’ on the west side of the island. Before you all get in a panic, this is nothing to do with anything sinister, oh no, it’s merely the shape a huge cathedral-sized cave takes when peering from the inside out. Top tip - venture here with a camera, but make sure you have a buddy or two with torches. Ask them to kindly position themselves in the ‘eyes’ of the skull - gives a great effect! There are so many adulations we could add to describe Magic Islands, and our first visit to dive the waters of Moalboal was an absolute dream. The reefs are stunning, all adorned with some of the cutest critters around, from candy crabs to hairy squat lobster, and there must be only a handful of dive sites in the world where you can be looking at a nudibranch the size of your little fingernail one moment, and spot a whaleshark cruising by in the shallows the next. We were so lucky to have seemingly always be in the right place at the right time - either that, or this truly is one of the greatest places for underwater adventures!

Magic Oceans, Anda, Bohol After an amazing week at Magic Islands, it was bittersweet to head to Magic Oceans for the second part of our trip. However, on arrival, we were met with so many familiar faces who all greeted us like long-lost friends. From the resort manager, Eef, to the kitchen and office staff and dive guides, who all seemed to remember who we were and genuinely pleased to see us return. We headed straight to the bar for a refreshing drink and snack (one of our best memories from the last time was the tasty spring rolls we had on arrival). After a quick briefing and catch up, we were led to our room, one of the bungalows at the rear of the resort surrounding the pool. All the rooms at Magic Oceans are slightly larger than Magic Islands and have been decorated in a more-contemporary style, each with their own terrace and ensuite bathroom.

Magic Oceans boasts 16 rooms, but the high standards and perfect layout of the resort tell you that Desiree and Arie took everything they learnt from growing Magic Islands over the years, putting only the best of their experiences into Magic Oceans. Created in 2014, Eef was integral in using his construction background to build the resort from an area full of trees and grass to the what you see today.

After unpacking our bags for the next eight days, we took our dive gear down to the dive center to get ready for the diving delights we had longed to return for. The dive center is of a very high standard – large, with plenty of open space, huge rinse tanks for dive gear and camera kit, walls covered in dive site maps and high-quality images of the residents on the reefs, but importantly for us, Magic Oceans has camera stations with high-pressure hoses for removing any water residue from your camera housing. Magic Oceans is equipped with three dive boats, but the difference compared to the vessels at Magic Islands is the size. The boats here are much larger and provide toilet facilities, areas for seating under cover from the sun as well as lots of space for soaking up some sun rays. There’s a large storage area for cameras and bags keeping everything safe and out of

GOOD TO KNOW! The Philippines has the highest rate of discovery of new animal species, with 16 new species of mammals discovered in the last ten years.

the way of divers kitting up for dives, too.

All of the dive sites at Magic Oceans are magical, but there are a few real standouts for us that we loved so much we went twice! A recent addition to their itinerary, Secret Place offers the perfect site for muck diving, a relatively shallow sandy bottom is home to critters of all shapes, colors and sizes, from flamboyant cuttlefish to Ambon scorpionfish leaving us truly in awe. But the star of the show was a beautiful and shy seahorse. It’s well known that seahorses don’t much like light or cameras in their faces, so on this dive we decided to backlight one with a softer light so as to not disturb or scare away. As it happened, a small current was sprinkling soft delicate grains of sand in the water column, catching the light and making it look like it was snowing. Sometimes you plan how a photo will turn out and if you get lucky, it meets your expectations, other times the experience itself is what makes you lucky, a small seahorse showing off its natural beauty just for us.

Then there’s Wonderwall, situated in the mostbeautiful cove and a short boat ride along the shoreline from the resort. This dive site was most likely the house reef of the long-deserted resort White Coco Beach, which now lies in ruins and acts as the perfect fishing

spot for the locals. This wall dive offers stunning coral as well as a seafan filled with plenty of pygmy seahorse (we spotted five on one seafan), hairy squat lobster hide among large barrel sponges, pipefish swim in and out of the coral and tiny crabs have made anemones their home. There is so much to see on this dive, I don’t think we covered even half of it, even after two dives! If you’re looking for something really special, then there is Lamanok - the furthest away from Magic Oceans, and the most temperamental due to its location. Lamanok is situated on the corner of a reef wall where currents converge and depending on the wind, has some surface waves. You can have a great dive here or the visibility can ruin it - nevertheless, the small island outcrops sitting among the brightest turquoise ocean make for a stunning surface internal. ABOVE Proflific marine life under a jetty

LEFT One of the Magic dive boats

Conclusion We had the most-amazing two weeks at the Magic resorts, so much so, we have booked to go back in 2021 for a third time with a larger group. If you are looking for outstanding food and a stunning setting with lots of variety (muck, macro, wide angle), then both resorts offer plenty on their own, but it’s the combination of the two that makes for a seriously special trip! Our list of species is endless - our eyes were hurting from seeing so much. Word of advice - bring plenty of memory cards for your camera, you’re going to need them! n

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

GETTING THERE Cebu City has an international airport, and it is then just a ferry and/or taxi ride to the resort. You can also get to Cebu airport via Manila.

WHEN TO GO Moalboal and Bohol, like the rest of the Visayas region, predominantly have good weather conditions most of the year, and therefore you can dive there all year round.

CURRENCY Peso, though many resorts will accept credit cards.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS Valid passport, with at least six months left to expiry, and a return flight ticket.

ELECTRICITY 220 volt, but within the resort are sockets for both North American and European two-pin plugs, but bring an adaptor if you need 110 volt (although at Magic, there is a 110-volt charging station in the restaurants).

Photography Stephen Frink

For his tenth dive, a diver decided to go out spearfishing with a group of experienced friends. The novice diver was excited to get back in the water and try out his new wetsuit, new BCD and new speargun. For these dives he borrowed an old regulator and SPG, wore 30lbs of weight and used a steel 100.

Upon reaching the site, a wreck with its top deck in about 40ft of seawater, the divers backrolled into murky, green water. The visibility was poor, and within the first few minutes of the dive, the novice diver and his buddy became separated. The diver searched frantically for his buddy and fortunately spotted him just over the wreck. Once he made it back, he looked at his SPG and discovered he had 600 PSI remaining.

The novice diver signalled to his buddy that he was low on air, and his buddy signalled for the novice diver to ascend without him. Once the novice diver ascended to about 20ft, he felt some breathing resistance, much like that he had felt just a few weeks before when his instructor shut off his cylinder during pool training to simulate what running out of air felt like. He continued to ascend, felt the air in his hoses stop and kicked upward, continuously exhaling until his head broke the surface. Once there he took a breath and began to orally inflate his BCD. Kicking vigorously, the diver struggled to keep his head above water, even though he was managing to inflate his BCD. It seemed to provide almost no lift. In the struggle, the diver frantically reach around for the red handle that would release his weights. Unfortunately, he had never practiced ditching his own weights from the BCD, so he was unable to find the handle. This failed attempt to release his weights sent the struggling diver into full

blown panic. Fortunately, two divers were already on the boat and the diver was still able to call for help. Once they realized he was struggling, the divers were able to retrieve him and get him back to the boat just before he blacked out. On board, the diver breathed emergency oxygen, but was feeling well enough to drive home by the time they reached the dock. Luckily for this diver, the outcome of this incident was a good one, however, if not for the proximity, alertness and quick action of his fellow divers, this mishap could’ve ended as a fatality.

If you take nothing else away from this article, know that this incident was entirely preventable. Knowing how to release your weights should be second nature before you ever wear a BCD into open water.

For more safety tips and lessons learned, visit: DAN.org/Diving-Incidents ABOVE Drop your weights when on the surface!

You are far from home and have nowhere else to turn. That’s when DAN dive accident coverage can help. DAN.org/Join-DAN

A couple injured in Maldives relied on DAN’s Guardian Plan to cover 100% of their claim. See the full story at DAN.org/Claim-Stories/.