Diving in Apo Island

In 1982 the fishing families on this island drew a line around 450 metres of their own shoreline, ran it 500 metres out from the beach, and stopped fishing inside it. Nobody made them do it, and years of talks with biologists and a social worker came first. On 9 August 1994 Presidential Proclamation No. 438 made the whole island and its waters a Protected Landscape and Seascape of 691.45 hectares1, and a Protected Area Management Board now governs it. Angel Alcala, who ran the Silliman marine laboratory in Dumaguete and later served as environment secretary, drove the reserve. He died in February 2023.

Monitoring started in 1983 and has run near-annually since, which is the rare part. Predatory fish biomass was still climbing exponentially after 18 years2, and 26 years of data put a new steady state 20 to 40 years out3. Targeted fish went from 25 tonnes per square kilometre in 1982 to 125 tonnes 26 years later4.

The coral is the part that has changed, so every figure carries a year. The sanctuary held up to 75 percent live hard coral before December 20125. Tropical storm Sendong in late 2011 and typhoon Pablo in December 2012 battered it6. Surveys in March 2013 recorded 99 percent coral damage and reef fish down by about half7, while a reef check that July found the northern reefs untouched, so the damage was never island-wide8. Live hard coral fell to under 1 percent, with fish four to five times below a 2008 baseline5. The damage reached the reef's deepest limit at 40 metres, leaving no deep refuge9. Rehabilitation ran from 2013 to 2016, and some divers in December 2024 still called the coral damaged.

None of that is a reason to skip it. Green and hawksbill turtles feed on the shallow seagrass off the village and are why hundreds of day visitors come. The diving proper is about water movement. Coconut Point on the north coast has been measured at 1 to 2 knots over a steep slope, with whitetip reef sharks on the sand around 28 metres. Mamsa Point is named for the local word for jacks, which hold where a gentle slope steepens abruptly. Chapel drops from a ledge at 12 metres into a wall of sponges, sea fans and whip corals. Largahan is the odd one, geothermal gas bubbling through dark volcanic sand in 6 to 14 metres, with frogfish and nudibranchs around it.

Apo is dived as a day trip from Dauin or Dumaguete, by outrigger banca from the centre's own beach, 30 to 45 minutes across, with up to three dives and surface intervals ashore. The dive team picks the sites that morning from conditions and group ability, so say which site you hope for when you enquire and treat the answer as provisional. Operators tend to keep Open Water divers on the sanctuary, Katipanan and Largahan and offer the points to divers who have logged moving water. Staying on the island is possible, but electricity and fresh water have been limited, and Dauin adds the black sand macro diving Apo does not.

The island charges an entrance fee at different rates for Filipino and foreign visitors, paid in cash at the beach office, plus a per-group guide for the sanctuary snorkel area. Amounts shift, so ask your centre what the day already covers. The sanctuary itself has been closed for rehabilitation before, and one diver in July 2025 found it officially shut yet in use. Touching, chasing, feeding or blocking the path of marine life is not allowed, sea turtles are protected under Philippine wildlife law, and every arriving visitor gets a briefing. Over storm rubble and rehabilitation structures, buoyancy matters more than usual5.

The settled season is November to May, and the habagat from June to September can cancel crossings; in July 2025 the coast guard stopped boats leaving the island for several days. Leave a spare day in the itinerary. Water sits at 27 to 29 C and a 3 mm suit is enough. On the points, carry an SMB and reel, because current can separate a diver from the boat.